Reign of the Planet of the Apes
by Young Milo
Summary: Sequel to Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Set in the year 3170, 500 years after the last known point in the Apes timeline (altered). What has become of Ape City? What of the human race? Has Caesar's dream of an integrated ape/human society been fulfilled? Or is history truly destined to repeat itself? Find out here, part 1 of a 2 part series. Part 2 coming soon... Part I of II
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

There was once a great and powerful civilization that ruled this planet. Its reign saw the rise and fall of a proud people. A people moved to achieve greater and greater achievements of science and technology. A people with the power to think and the power to speak.

This power for a while was used for good. This power was used to build, to teach, to heal. For a time the people of this civilization marveled at their own magnificence and saw a vast and unlimited future. A future of higher learning and of higher achievement. A future where all was possible.

This civilization, and its people, the lords of the Earth, in the span of a few thousand years, became masters of all. And when there were no more lands to conquer, when there were no more peoples to civilize, it became inevitable that they would turn against one another. Suddenly the Earth was too small for this civilization. The power to create quickly became the power to destroy. The people became consumed with their own gratification, and in their efforts to cling to power, exploited the surrounding environment. A land of abundance became a land of scarcity. Nature was subjected to slavery. And after a while, this people, man, made slaves of the apes.

Until one day.

The day the Great King Caesar led the apes out of bondage and out of captivity. Ape turned against slave-owner in a Night of Fire. And a Planet of Men became the Planet of the Apes.

And so man, with all his intelligence, with all his power, and with all his might, turned against man. And in so doing scorched the Earth for all eternity. The cities lay in ruin as irradiated wastelands; their last inhabitants becoming monstrosities of nature, themselves wasted. Consumed with smoldering resentment, the remnants of Old San Francisco sought to lay waste to Caesar's Ape City, where man and ape had worked to seek a peaceful coexistence. The pain of these men from the old world would be shared by all.

And so a Second Day of Fire commenced, and once more Caesar won a great victory. Ape City would be free from further human aggression. Peace, it seemed, had been secured. For more than six hundred years that peace would last. "Ape shall not kill ape" became "none shall kill another."

But after another five hundred years, the memory of Caesar's glory began to fade. Apes evolved. Man continued to fall. The apes had become a great and powerful civilization, and moved to achieve greater and greater achievements of science and technology. Apes with the power to think. The power to speak.

This power for a while was used for good. The apes marveled at their own magnificence and saw a vast and unlimited future. Theirs was a future of higher learning and of higher achievement, a future where all was possible. This future had less and less use for man.

This ape civilization, the lords of the Earth, in the span of a thousand years, had become masters of all. And when there were no more lands to conquer, the Earth became too small for the apes. The power to create quickly became the power to destroy. The apes became consumed with their own gratification, and in their efforts to cling to power exploited the surrounding environment. A land of abundance became a land of scarcity. Nature was once again subjected to slavery.

And so it was.

This is that story.

The story of the Reign of the Planet of the Apes.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One:**

Ape City was bustling. The Ape Council was in the middle of a hearing that was to decide whether or not to seal entire chapters of the Sacred Scrolls. While the history of Caesar's overthrow of his human slaveholders was known to those apes who studied their history, the details of the revolution had begun to fade amongst ordinary apes. Knowledge that apes had once been subordinate to man was but a distant memory now, and an inconvenient truth for those ruling apes voting at council that day.

"_Man is a menace. He is a plague upon our people and our entire society."_

A seasoned, older orangutan named Marius held the floor. A fiery orator, Marius had been swept into office riding a high tide of anti human sentiment a little less than thirty five years prior. He was recognized by ape society as an ambitious politician, and as a leading candidate for High Councilman in the upcoming election. It was his hope that he could push through a second set of Human Reforms prior to the election in order to boost his popularity and electoral chances, possibly positioning himself for the High Councillorship.

"_The very idea that man could have ever been superior to ape is too dangerous an idea to leave alone. And it is irrelevant. Man is now nothing more than a dumb brute. He is an animal that, while mindless and unintelligent on his own, poses a danger in large groups. If ape knew mans true nature it would shake the very foundations of our great civilization. And if man ever knew that he could rule, think, speak! Ha! He would do nothing but destroy."_ Marius shouted.

He had the more conservative members of the Ape Council, mainly orangutans, eating out of the palm of his hand. They were screaming in support of their champion.

"_And that is why I propose that this great body seal off those sections of the Sacred Scrolls pertaining to Caesar's revolution and the fall of man_." Marius continued.

This was too much for many in the Ape Council. While no fan of mankind, the apes at Council still revered Caesar's name. He was their founding father. To write him out of the Scrolls was too much. Milo, a young chimpanzee thought to be Marius' main rival for power, rose to oppose him.

"_Tell me Councilor Marius. What good would it do to write out the history of our people? Are we not apes? Do we not write history?_" Milo said wryly.

Milo's progressive faction laughed behind him as said this. Although Milo knew the effect his words would have with the chimpanzees, he also knew that it played to the orangutan's sense of biological superiority. Himself an open advocate for human rights, Milo, as ape minority leader, knew he could not alienate the moderate apes in the Council, by seeming to be too openly friendly with the humans.

"_Are we not superior to man in every way? Man can barely speak, much less form any sort of rebellion. His vocabulary only exists to serve his basest desires. Our own infants can speak more intelligently than man. Man is worthy of our pity, and our protection, but not our fear. We give man much too much credit if we think for a second that he is capable of rebellion. Rebellion? Please. Sealing off those sections of the Sacred Scrolls that mention mans history and that of the rise of the apes would be an insult not only to Caesar's memory, but to all of apekind! Leave the history alone. Let the truth speak for itself. And let apekind prove itself again and again to be superior."_

"_Need I remind you Councilor Milo, that man once said the same thing of apes? Knowledge of this kind is dangerous and must be eliminated! It is not worth the risk._" Marius butted in.

"_No knowledge is dangerous!_" Milo shouted back while facing his fellow chimps, to thunderous applause.

The Ape Council was degenerating into a shouting match. Orangutans were throwing their lunches at the chimpanzees and the chimpanzees were flinging their feces at the orangutans. High Councilor Leo, a gorilla veteran of the Ape Council, had had enough.

"_Enough!_" Leo ordered as the Council fell silent.

Leo had been a soldier, a general, Commander-in-Chief, councilor, and High Councilor. The only role he had not played in ape government was that of High King Caesar. And that position was not what it once was anyway. Although the debate over whether to seal parts of the Sacred Scrolls was alive and well, the reign of the Caesar's was not. Caesar XXVI was nothing more than a figurehead in ape society, weak and powerless. And in his weakness, he deferred greatly to the Ape Council. Although Caesar was still High King, the average ape didn't know the true nature and power of what "Caesar" stood for anymore, making it all too easy for this Council to push hard for sealing off certain parts of the Sacred Scrolls. The average ape would still hail Caesar, without knowing why, other than that he was still Caesar.

"_I call for a vote now."_ Leo commanded the attention of all around him_. "To seal those sections of the Sacred Scrolls that mention the origin of man and ape. To seal those sections of the Sacred Scrolls that mention the ape revolution. And, I would add, that in order to honor Caesar's memory, we grant Caesar I the title of Lawgiver. All surviving Scrolls shall bear Caesar's name as the Lawgiver, so that no ape shall ever forget his name. Caesar, our great leader!" _Leo had the room hanging on his every word, as usual.

The apes, at least visually, didn't seem too bothered by that last ad hoc provision.

"_Further. I propose that a special historical committee be convened and charged with the task of preserving those sections of the sacred scrolls that would be sealed off pending today's vote. Should they be sealed off from the world, they should nevertheless be preserved and studied so that we never forget our history, the history of man, and mans true nature._" Leo finished. It seemed that he was tipping his hand in favor of sealing off the Scrolls. But he said nothing more, except to call for the vote.

_"Now who says aye?"_ Leo asked the Council.

The orangutans and many gorillas beat their chests in self righteous pride. They wanted nothing more than to wipe mankind out of history entirely, and it wasn't a stretch of the imagination to say that they wanted man literally wiped off the face of the earth.

"_Who says nay?" _Leo asked again.

Screams and howls from the chimpanzees rang through the Ape Council. And yet joining them were also many gorillas, who while socially conservative like the orangutans, still so revered Caesar I's name that they were unwilling to consign him to the role of simply Lawgiver. They wanted the world to know the truth about the great High King.

Leo counted the votes, and the verdict was in…


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two:**

Outside the Ape Council, only a handful of concerned apes were waiting to hear the news of the vote. This current generation of apes was even less interested in current affairs than the last. And the same was true of that generation as well. But the group of apes waiting on this news was a truly devoted lot, and was the same group of apes to hear the news from the last session that a exploratory expedition was being put together to reach the ends of the earth as they knew it, in the name of and for the glory of Ape City, and to establish diplomatic relations with any ape settlements that they found along the way. Two young chimpanzees in particular were waiting just outside the High Council building, eagerly waiting in anticipation.

"_Oh this whole thing is such nonsense. Sealing off the Scrolls? It's unheard of! I'm surprised Marius would even think it. Such a thing would be considered blasphemy by a God fearing orangutan. What do they think? That all apes will just forget their history?_" Odora complained.

"_You assume apes know their history in the first place. Now Odora, please, I really do wish that you would keep your voice down. Whatever happens in there happens. There is nothing that we can do about it and the sooner you learn that the better. The best we can hope for is that they haven't gone completely mad. Yet._" Lucius tried to explain.

Lucius and Odora were two chimpanzees tasked by the High Council with conducting research on humans. Based on the laws in place at the time, their research was limited only to unmarked humans found outside Ape City. Human rights advocates had argued successfully for laws maintaining some level of protection for humans, to the dismay of apes like Marius who would just as rather see man go extinct. Marius had been successful in just the last session in getting some laws passed which carved broad exceptions to the human protection laws, such as opening up unmarked humans to gladiator games in the arena, provided that the killing of humans be avoided "if at all possible, but without risking death or serious bodily injury to an ape."

"_Lucius, why do you never back me up on these things? It doesn't even make sense. Why are they so afraid of humans anyway? I've read my history. I know. But how does that make man a threat to us now? They can't even communicate!_" Odora was clearly agitated.

"_How can you be so sure? How do we know? They have all the necessary speech organs. They can make noises. There is no physiological reason why they don't talk. The only thing I've been able to come up with is that man is no longer mentally capable of extensive verbal communication. But what if one day they learn again?_" Ever the scientist, Lucius had to take the opportunity to point out Odora's oversights.

"_Would that be so terrible?_" asked Odora.

"_It might Odora, it just might._" Lucius said as the doors to the Ape Council were thrust open as a young gorilla ran outside to nail the results of the day's votes on the side of the Ape Council house. After some hustling and bustling, and weaving in and out of a couple of onlookers, Lucius and Odora found the tablet hanging next to the Council doors. When they scrolled down past a few routine procedural votes, they found what they were looking for.

VOTE IN FAVOR OF UPDATING SECTIONS OF THE SACRED SCROLLS: PASSED

While not entirely surprised, Odora's heart sank into her chest as a wave a shame and guilt washed over her. All Lucius could do was try to console her as best he could. Not knowing if it had any impact, Lucius put his arm around her, and she cried. After the first wave of tears had passed, Odora spoke.

"_What is happening_?" She asked fearfully.

"_I don't know._" Lucius replied. "_Things aren't what they used to be are they_?"

There was no denying the simple truth of Lucius' statement. Over the course of time, Ape City had undergone a period of tremendous change. Back in the time of Caesar I, ape culture, while civilized, was still rather primitive. Apes lived in tree houses, lived an agrarian lifestyle, bartered, traded, and while they possessed weapons, they were the weapons of man rather than of their own creation. Now, hundreds and hundreds of years after Caesar's glorious revolution, apes had advanced by leaps and bounds. Ape City was now a thriving metropolis brimming with life and culture. Just down the path from the Ape Council was an entire culture district where those who cared for such things could take in the theater, enjoy fine dining, listen to the Ape City Orchestra, take their young ones to the zoo to see the newest batch of wild humans, or even cheer on their gladiators as they fought off savage humans in the arena. This latest was a newer attraction established during the previous High Councilor's tenure, Urk.

Urk, yet another gorilla High Councilor, was in an unbroken string of gorilla High Councilors dating back over twenty generations, to the time of Caesar II, back to the time of the establishment of the High Council. Gorillas had traditionally held the position of High Councilor as a concession by the chimpanzees and orangutans of Ape City. When the Ape Council was created, the gorillas felt that they were disproportionately underrepresented in ape affairs, and rather than risk jeopardizing the new government, the bargain was made and relative stability was achieved. While the position was initially created as a figurehead position, in the false belief that the ape monarchy would survive as a strong governing entity, it eventually evolved into the most powerful powerful governing position in Ape City. Since the beginning of the Ape Council, a gorilla had always been High Councilor.

The past few hundred years had seen the most rapid change of all. The Pax Gorilla, as the gorillas referred to it anyway, which had given great stability, had also come at a price. Ape culture was growing more and more conservative, and more aware of the subtle differences that not only divided ape from man, but also ape from ape. Ape society was beginning to divide into distinct social classes, with chimpanzees being more progressive towards ape/human relations, more skeptical of organized religion, or Apeism as it has come to be called, more skeptical of the ape government, and more willing to allow science to provide the answers to the mysteries of life and of the universe.

Orangutans, on the other hand, were deferring more and more to the ever strengthening ape central government. The orangutans saw no point in even having ape/human relations, unless it was for the purpose of scientific research and experimentation. They enthusiastically embraced Apeism, deferred greatly to the ape government, and like chimpanzees, embraced science as a means of learning about the world. However, unlike the chimps, the orangutans, would never allow science to cut down any articles of Apeism.

And the gorillas were a simpler kind of ape. They were less interested in science, religion, philosophy, and other affairs of the mind as they were infatuated with power. The language of the gorilla was power and domination. Needless to say, the gorillas didn't care much for science. For them, power explained the way of the world. Gorillas had zero tolerance for ape/human relations, nor did they care to use them as science experiments. Gorillas had become utterly convinced that man was simply a menace. Rather than seeing man as some sort of threat to ape existence, most gorillas simply hated having men around, and wouldn't hesitate for a second at a chance for a chance to kill a human without there being any consequences. For a gorilla, man was a pest, not a threat, or at least not yet. And while most gorillas paid lip service to Apeism, the simple truth is that most rank and file gorillas didn't fully understand it and frankly didn't care to try to understand it. The gorillas did strongly support the ape government though, and regularly supported measures that would either strengthen the powers of the High Councilor, weaken the social standing of the humans in Ape City, or better the lives of ordinary gorillas. Of all the apes, the gorillas were the most self conscious of their subspecies, and took great pride in being gorillas.

Suddenly, as the thoughts of the future were racing through the mind of Lucius and Odora, someone tapped Lucius on the shoulder.

"_Jeez!_" Lucius said as he turned around in a scare.

"_Sorry to startle you Lucius._" Said a member of the Council Guard. The Council Guard was a band of silverback gorillas assigned to protecting members of the Royal Family or of the Ape Council. "_But Leo has requested your presence in his chambers. Would you please come with me?_"


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three:**

The outside of Marius' chambers was lined with the busts of the great orangutans of Ape City. There was Virgil, there was Mandamus, and then there was the Great Lawgiver himself. Neither Lucius nor Odora could look at the bust of the Great Orangutan without a feeling of immense sadness. This great ape, the Great Lawgiver who had laid forth the Articles of the Faith, fought against inequality, and who had helped turn Caesar's dream into a reality, was now about to be wiped from the Scrolls. Caesar himself, the Ape King Head of the Revolution, was being forced to assume the mantle of only Lawgiver, as his own legacy was also being erased from the Sacred Scrolls. So much was changing so fast, and most apes in Ape City either didn't know it or didn't care.

Lucius had been waiting outside of Marius' chambers for over an hour, and he couldn't help but be nervous. Odora had come with him for moral support but neither one of them knew what to make of this new turn of events. Marius was quite a powerful member of the Ape Council and a prominent citizen to say the least. Born a privileged orangutan in 3116, Marius attended the finest schools in Ape City until he graduated from the Academy in 3127. Upon graduation, Marius went back home where he oversaw his growing plantation, making sure that the human slave labor there remained efficient and did not get out of control. Marius stayed home on the plantation for eight years, until humans from the forbidden city made an all out attack on Ape City in a Third Day of Fire. When the attack was finally turned back by the Ape Army, Marius took advantage of the tide of anti-human sentiment in Ape City to get himself elected Councilor, where he has been ever since.

"_What do you think he wants?_" Odora asked the obvious.

"_To be honest. I haven't the slightest clue._" Lucius replied.

"_Is it because of what I said at the Council? Because I didn't mean it._" Odora was starting to worry.

"_Oh Odora,_" Lucius laughed, "_Yes you did._"

The two shared a sincere, yet uncomfortable chuckle. They had been the best of friends for as long as they could remember; they had grown up together, played together, studied together, and now they were working together. They had earned a reputation as being the two best scientists in Ape City. They were particularly known, especially by Marius and other leading orangutans, as dedicated scientists with an affinity for defiance of authority. As such, the authorities in Ape City made a conscious effort to routinely pay random surprise visits to the labs where Lucius and Odora worked. Although the two of them were involved in important projects fully sanctioned by the Ape Council, their support of human rights got them in frequent trouble. Among other projects, Lucius and Odora had recently been busy examining the migratory patterns of humans. For centuries, man had lived in Ape City in relative peace and quiet. Some apes were guilty of discrimination against humans, and some gorillas in particular were often found to commit violence against them, but for the most part men were left alone to do what they pleased. However, over the past few hundred years and, in particular, since the human aggression of 3135, along with the rise of more and more anti-human elements in Ape City, men had been systematically relegated to certain ghettos and kept under constant surveillance. Those who refused to be herded into such parts of the city were arrested, or they left entirely. And because of this, the Ape Council deemed it important to track their movements, and map out their settlements, in case they should ever again threaten to rule over the apes.

Lucius and Odora always felt that there was more to the humans than most in the Ape Council knew, or would let on . They were able to think, and to speak, or at least speak in short simple sentences. The humans in Ape City could already be seen assembling in underground sections of the city. Nobody knew exactly what they were up to, but Lucius, Odora, and other progressive chimps had to admit that Marius was right when he said that humans at least had the potential to pose a potential threat to ape society. There was no evidence to support that they were in fact planning any sort of human revolution. In fact, most, if not all, evidence indicated that humans just wanted to be left alone. However, conservative apes in Ape City still pointed to the human aggression of 3135 as evidence of man's innate desire to destroy ape-kind. Should they ever plan to overthrow the apes, and should they ever again gain access to the same weapons they had mastered at the time of their downfall, then not only apes but the entire planet could be in grave danger. And thus, humans had to be kept under constant control.

Finally, a broad chested member of the Council Guard emerged.

"_Lucius. Marius will see you now._" He grunted

No nonsense as usual, he was wearing the usual attire for a gorilla of his position. His legs and sleeves were draped in purple fabric, with his chest covered in a black leather chestplate, and black leather greaves protecting his shins and forearms. In fact, the only piece of equipment that separated a member of the Council Guard from a regular soldier was a piece of chain mail headgear that only Council Guards could wear.

Lucius made his way past the Guards as Odora tried to follow.

"_I'm sorry. Only Lucius has been requested. You must stay here._" The guard said.

"_Are you sure?_" Lucius pleaded. "_She is my research partner. I need her with me._"

"_I'm sorry Lucius. But there is protocol._" The Guard would not be moved. Hearing the commotion outside, Marius himself came out of his chambers.

"_Lucius. Odora. So nice to see the both of you! What seems to be the problem?_" Marius said as he emerged from his inner chambers.

"_Sir,_" The Guard, desperate to be commended for doing his duty, explained, "_The female wants to be present for your meeting with Lucius. It is against the…_"

"_So let her be present._" Marius laughed. "_Come. Come in._"

The three of them made their way into Marius' chambers. Odora couldn't help but let a smile slip as she passed by the stubborn Guard. Marius' chambers were dark and cold. On one side of the room was a mural showing the events of the great Revolution, from the arrival of Cornelius and Zira, to their deaths, to Caesar's captivity, to his Revolution, and ending with his victory over the humans in the Second Day of Fire. On the other side of the room were the Sacred Scrolls in their entirety.

"_It's been a while Lucius._" Marius began the discussion.

"_It has been._" Said Lucius. "_About six months._"

"_That sounds about right. And how are you Odora? You look well_." Marius asked.

"_I'm fine Marius. How are you?_" Odora replied.

"_I'm good, I'm good. Lucius, I know you are wondering why I called you here today._" Marius asked, knowing full well that the answer was obvious.

"_Just a little."_Lucius said, waiting for Marius to get to the point.

"_Well I called you here to ask something from you. As you are no doubt aware, the session before last, the Council commissioned an exploratory expedition to go east. We need to find the most direct and practical means of transportation and communication across this continent, for the purposes of trade and commerce. We must declare our sovereignty over this land and get an accurate sense of the resources we have at our disposal on this continent. With the overpopulation problem here in Ape City, we must find new means to support our continued expansion. We have reason to believe that there have to be more ape settlements out there, and the Council felt it was important to establish relationships with them. We need someone to lead that expedition, and the Council feels like you are the ape for that job." _Marius explained. _"The influence of Ape City must be expanded to the ends of the earth, for the glory of Ape City."_

Lucius was stunned for a moment, and then spoke.

"_I don't think I'm the ape for this mission. This sounds like a job for a soldier. I'm sure there are hundreds of gorillas who would jump at this chance in a heartbeat._" Lucius protested.

Marius anticipated this answer.

"_Yes. And there will be plenty of gorillas going with you on this expedition. But we need the head of this expedition to specifically not be a soldier. We feel that someone with your scientific and historical background would be a much more diplomatic choice. You understand, the head of this expedition must not be a soldier. We will be coming in peace, not as conquerors._ _You will maintain contact with High Councilor Leo, who will make sure you have everything you need._ _And it has to be you Lucius._" Marius was trying to console Lucius. _"If, when you reach the ends of the earth, you do find other apes, we need it to be perfectly clear that we come in peace."_

Lucius didn't know what to say.

"_But, what about my work? What about Odora?_" Lucius pleaded.

Marius anticipated this response as well.

"_I'm glad you asked. As you are aware, this most recent session the Council convened a new historical commission to preserve those parts of the Sacred Scrolls that are to be sealed and kept secret from the masses. Odora, we would like you to head this commission. And you will be able to continue you and Lucius' work from here in Ape City._" Marius was taking away reasons for them to protest.

Lucius and Odora looked at one another. They knew that this meeting was in fact just a formality and that they had no real say in the matter. The only thing that they could do was agree. Which they did.

"_I guess we have no choice. We'll do it." _Lucius said.

"_Good."_Marius smiled.


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four:**

Lucius and Odora had made the long walk back to their lab. The entire walk back they couldn't help but be awestruck with the massive responsibility that had been bestowed upon them both. Such important tasks, entrusted to scientists? Lucius couldn't help but wonder why. Why him? Why not Leo himself? The old soldier would likely be standing down from the Councilship soon enough and in his retirement he could lead the expedition in person. It just seemed so strange to Lucius.

The lab was a complete mess. Lucius had never been much of an organizer, or a cleaner for that matter. Odora was only slightly better. Her work and experiments were scattered all across the lab in such a manner that neither of them could keep them straight. The task for keeping the lab running smoothly now fell squarely on Odora.

"_I don't know how I am supposed to run this place while you're gone._" Odora said, picking up various pieces of lab equipment. "_I can't even tell where my work ends and your begins._"

"_Well don't look at me," _Lucius snapped back in self defense. "_This is all your mess. Look at all that. If you would just pick up after yourself every once in a while, you wouldn't be having to clean up all the time._"

"_My mess? I have never been around such a slob in all my life._" Odora shouted back. "_And if I've told you once I have told you a thousand times, stop eating oranges in the lab!_"

Caught red-handed, Lucius could only watch as Odora threw his half eaten banana into the trash. Lucius drew back to his part of the lab to look over his work. The latest data from the migratory pattern experiments had come in recently, and suggested that humans were moving in packs, not as individuals. They appeared to move in groups no larger than thirty and were always led by an alpha male. It was Lucius' hope that he could release a captive human into the wild and into one of these packs. Lucius' hypothesis was that human society was based not on familial attachment but rather on societal pressures. As such, he believed that the captive human would be accepted by the pack so long as the pack's social customs were followed. But all that was going to be left to Odora now, for he was going on this grand new adventure.

Lucius retired to his private quarters. The lab had a back room attached that served as Lucius' living space. Lucius was packing when Odora came in.

"_What are you taking?_" Odora asked.

"_Couple changes of clothes. And pen and paper._" Lucius said as he turned around to face Odora. "_I_ _plan on writing you every day. I just don't know what I'm going to do without you. And what will you do? How will you…_"

"_Lucius I'll be fine."_Odora interrupted._"I'll be fine. And you'll be fine. And don't worry; I'll be sure to write back. Just think of it as a vacation._"

"_Ha!"_Lucius laughed._"A vacation. Believe me, the last thing I would want to do with my vacation is ride around with a bunch of gorillas. I don't even know when I'll be coming back! This could take a year. Maybe more!_"

"_Well don't worry; I'll be sure to fix all your mistakes here at the lab._" Odora teased.

Lucius walked up to Odora and put his hands on her shoulders.

"_If I found some great new Ape City at the ends of the earth, I'm going to name it after you, Odora._"

Lucius placed a small, gentle kiss upon Odora's cheek. As he did, he looked back over at his bag, only to realize that he had completed his packing. The only thing left to do was to say good bye. Lucius was to report to Leo's office first thing in the morning. And from there his adventure would begin. Lucius had no idea what to expect from this journey. He had never even left Ape City before, much less cross an entire continent. And it was the unknown more than anything else that frightened him so much. Not only did he not know when he would ever return to Ape City, Lucius had no idea what he would find on this journey, or who he would find. Perhaps he would find other apes. Perhaps he would find humans. Or perhaps he would find something else entirely.

"_Well. I guess this is it."_ Lucius said as he prepared to leave. "_Don't forget to check the reports on the humans every day. I mean it Odora. Every day. If you let more than one day go by without mapping out their movements, then you'll have to start the whole process over again…_"

"_Lucius._" Odora said.

"_And if you have to start all over again, that could take months just to get…_" Lucius was getting animated.

"_Lucius._" Odora said, this time impatiently.

"_The right pack of humans and the right test candidates and it's a whole thing. Now are you list…_" Lucius was in his own little world now.

"_Lucius!_" Odora had to resort to yelling at this point.

Lucius stopped to regain his composure for just a moment. Then he said the only thing that came through his mind.

"_Good bye Odora. I'm going to miss you._"

"_I'm going to miss you too._"

And with that, Lucius and Odora gave each other one last hug before he headed for the door and was off. After he had given Odora his very last goodbye, the door to the lab shut and Odora was alone. She wasted little time in getting back to cleaning the lab. On one side of the lab, Odora began to sort through some various sheets of paper. She stacked the pages one on top of the other, at first not paying any attention to what they had to say. And then she noticed a small book of Lucius' buried beneath even more paper. After picking it up and looking at the title, Odora noticed a tiny inscription that had been written into the leather binding. It said "HISTORY OF THE APES" on the cover and did not list an author. The book was a special project that Lucius had been working on. In addition to being a top scientist, Lucius was also a top notch historian who taught at the Academy from time to time. While not a teacher by trade, Lucius was always in great demand to give lectures on the origin of Apes and humans. Lucius was a bit of a renegade at the Academy. While he taught the curriculum, which was heavily influence by Apeism and it's central focus on divine intervention explaining away the appearance of Cornelius and Zira, he was by no mean believer. Lucius did not believe for a minute that God sent Cornelius and Zira to save the apes from their human slave masters. But while Lucius freely pushed the curriculum to its limits, he never taught contrary to apeism. He cared too much for his work at the lab to be imprisoned for preaching heresy at the Academy. But despite his best efforts, however, Lucius was hardly making a difference in ape society. Lucius knew the truth about the true origins of apes. He also knew that he must keep what he knew secret, as well as how he came to know it. If anyone were to discover what he knew, then he, Odora, and the entire lab would be in serious jeopardy. But the real tragedy for Lucius was that that all public information in Ape City might as well have been sealed and hidden as a state secret. The tragedy was that he was one of the few to know the truth about things which could freely and easily be learned in the public library. Until sealed, the Sacred Scrolls still told Caesar's story. Any ape who wished to know the truth about Caesar and his Revolution were free and able to do so at their own leisure. Lucius himself was teaching these truths day after day at the Academy, with little to no interference from the state. While Lucius knew the true history of the origin of the apes but had to remain silent about that, he freely taught about Caesar's Revolution with the state's full backing, up until the most recent Council session. But even without the current deception that was about to take place, apes were already forgetting Caesar. They knew Caesar only as a weak king who did absolutely nothing while gorilla High Councilors and chimp party leaders and orangutans demagogued at Council. The irony was that it wasn't even necessary to seal the Scrolls. Apes had already forgotten.

Nevertheless, just like Lucius, Odora had a job to do. She put away the HISTORY OF THE APES for the time being, and one by one, she began to seal off the Scrolls.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five:**

Always awaiting orders outside some bureaucrat's office, that's what Lucius' life had become. Just the other day he was outside Marius' chambers awaiting this new life altering mission, and now he was waiting for High Councilor Leo to inevitably tell him that he was going to be undersupplied and underfunded. But what else was he to expect with a soldier now running the show as High Councilor. Leo had been known for being outrageously thrifty; but at least with a soldier, things were always running according to, if not ahead of, schedule.

The outside of Leo's chambers was very different than that of Marius'. As one might expect, rather than making his world a shrine to bureaucrat orangutans, Leo had the busts of the great gorilla soldiers throughout ape history. In particular, Leo had vigorously tried to emulate the reign of Urk, who worked so hard to increase the power of the gorillas in Ape City. Leo was a gorilla's gorilla. A decisive leader who oozed charisma, it was only natural that he would develop into a leader of apes.

Born in 3120, Leo had been bred to be a soldier. The son of gorillas in poverty, there was little hope of Leo advancing up into the higher echelons of ape society without going into the military. And so from the outset he was trained in the arts of war, and at the age of five he had learned to read and write. At age ten he was learning to ride horseback, by eleven he was through the military academy, and by age twelve he was in the army. His army career was pretty uneventful in those early days, rounding up wild humans who strayed too far into Ape City without the proper mark. In those days, branded humans were free to roam in and around the city, but those who bore no mark of any kind were subject to arrest. Ape City humans were branded at birth so that the ape authorities could keep an accurate count of the human population in the city, but humans roaming outside of Ape City or those found guilty of criminal activity or made prisoners of war and who thus had their marks forcibly removed were entitled to no protection. Throughout these early years, Leo continued to round up humans as he climbed up the ranks of the ape military, eventually achieving the rank of full general in 3130. It wasn't until a group of humans from the forbidden city in 3135 attempted an attack on Ape City that Leo made a real name for himself. Not since the Second Day of Fire had humans made any sort of concerted effort to attack Ape City. But the Third Day of Fire was an all out attack on Ape City, and it may have been successful if not for a daring cavalry charge in which Leo himself led his apes around and behind the human line of attack, breaking their lines. From there all that was needed was to clean up the mess, killing all those who were left to resist, and enslaving those who surrendered. While it was illegal to enslave a branded human, unmarked humans were unprotected by ape law and therefore eligible for enslavement. And while these humans were clearly different from the humans in Ape City, they still were enough of a threat to allow Marius and other "reform minded" apes to pass restrictive Human Reforms in 3136 that legally took humans, even marked ones, from second class citizens, to non citizens. From that day forward, no humans had citizenship. And humans found to be outside of their designated "zones" were subject to arrest and imprisonment for vagrancy, or worse.

It was only natural that from there Leo began a political career. And without lifting a finger, Leo was drafted by a vast majority of apes to run as councilor, unopposed, in 3138, where he won a decisive, unanimous victory. Fresh off his newfound political success, Leo had no intention of sitting around and doing nothing while Ape City continued to evolve. He was a surprising voice of moderation in those times, forging compromise after compromise when various chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans brought forth competing visions for the future of ape/human relations. In a span of merely six years, Leo had cast a record number of tie breaking votes on the Council floor, usually in favor of the gorillas. However, he was never a rabid anti-human. He just felt that they would never survive without laws to keep them under control and safe from other apes, and from themselves. And of course running for reelection at all was merely a formality, winning back his office seven consecutive times and serving in that capacity until 3154.

He declined to run again however, when High Councilor Urk offered him the highest post a soldier could ever attain in Ape City, that of Commander-in-Chief. Of course, as a soldier first and foremost, Leo could not refuse when duty called. And so he accepted and worked alongside High Councilor Urk and the Ape Council to better administer the Human Reforms and to ensure that humans never again posed a serious threat to Ape City. Resources needed to be redirected to provide for the science ministry research projects designed to gain a better understanding of humans. The Ape Army had to be strengthened. The police force needed to be augmented. But above all else, all projects needed to work towards the same ultimate goal: the elimination of man as a threat to apes and to the world at large. And in this, they were relatively successful. Meanwhile, as the years passed, humans posed less of a threat than ever before, and their physical and mental degeneration seemed to be accelerating rapidly, either from radioactive fallout or from some other unknown trigger. Whatever the cause, men during this period, while not mute, were gradually either losing the physical ability to speak, the mental ability to speak, or were choosing not to speak at all.

And so Leo served as Commander-in-Chief from 3154 to 3166, until High Councilor Urk decided to retire forever from public life. The Ape Council debated a replacement for forty days and forty nights, until they finally cast their votes for Urk's successor. By unanimous consent, in the year 3166, Leo, the simple soldier who started his career capturing humans caught running with the vegetables of ape farmers, was now High Councilor.

Lucius knew Leo's story, as did every other ape in Ape City. And also like every other ape in Ape City, Lucius was terrified of him. The sheer awe of the office was enough to frighten any ape, but the fact that the great office was now occupied by such a great ape made him almost godlike to ordinary apes. And so, while sitting outside Leo's chambers, surrounded by the busts of the great warrior gorillas of ages past, Lucius felt genuine fear.

Not a minute after the time the meeting was set to begin, yet another straight laced ember of the Council Guard emerged from an incredibly large marble doorway, signaling that it was time for Lucius' meeting with Leo to begin.

"_Hello Lucius. Leo has been expecting you. Please come this way._" The Council Guard said.

Lucius followed behind the enormous Council Guard through a rounded off hallway that emptied into open room occupied by none other than Leo himself. The High Councilor looked every bit the way Lucius expected him to appear. While obviously aware of Leo's looks from various campaign posters and from seeing him from far distances at various public appearances, Lucius had never seen the ape up close face to face. But there may never have been a more distinguished looking ape. Slightly graying, and at this point wearing spectacles, the fifty year old gorilla looked distinguished and intelligent.

"_Good morning Lucius. So nice to finally meet you. It's an honor._" Leo opened up the meeting.

"_The honor is mine sir._" Lucius replied.

"_Please. Have a seat. Take a load off. I promise I won't keep you long._" Leo said as he walked around behind his large stone desk and took his seat. Lucius followed suit, sitting down and waiting for Leo to get down to business.

"_Oh. Please. Sir, it's…_" Lucius hated these types of situations. He had always been intimidated by authority and was never quite comfortable with how to respond to powerful apes.

"_So have you given any thought as to what you will need for this expedition_?" Leo asked directly.

"_Honestly sir, I do not know what I'm doing here. I'm not a soldier and have never done anything like this before. And frankly, I was hoping that if I must do this, then you or a member of your staff would help me out._" Lucius had absolutely no idea what to say. He didn't know the first thing about leading an expedition.

"_Lucius, I have dispatched Maurice, my chief of staff, to go with you for this expedition. As you are well aware, this mission is vital for the interests of Ape City. Given the latest census numbers, Ape City is beginning to become overpopulated. While things are stable now, in less than a few generations, Ape City will be unable to sustain itself. Therefore, we need to expand to sustain ourselves. We have reason to believe that there may be other ape settlements far east from here. And if and when you make contact with these cities, you are to establish diplomatic relations inside the settlement and leave behind an ambassador._" Leo said in what seemed like a single breath. He spoke in such a calm and steady manner that Lucius now felt like maybe he could do this after all.

"_Sir. Um…how many apes will I have with me for this expedition?_" Lucius asked, hoping he would get as many apes as Ape City could spare.

"_The Council has authorized the use of one thousand apes for this mission. This force includes one hundred diplomats, one hundred laborers, and eight hundred soldiers. I assume that's enough?_" Leo said, knowing full well that if Lucius asked for a single ape more, the request would be denied.

"_Um…um…sure. Uh, I mean, yes sir._" This was all Lucius could say at this point.

"_Good. Any other questions?_" Leo said. He had obligations to meet and was done with this meeting.

"_Um._ _No sir._" Lucius was as ready as he would ever be.

"_Good. Then if you don't have any other questions for me, Maurice will take you to the head of the expedition and you will leave at once. Lucius, on behalf of all of Ape City, and also personally, I want to thank you for doing this. Thank you._" Leo rose as he said these last word, expecting Lucius to excuse himself and leave his chambers.

"_Oh no need to thank me sir. Just a chimp doing his uh, um... duty sir. Good bye._" Lucius responded.

"_Good bye Lucius._"


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six:**

Milo walked through the titan double doors of the Royal Palace. He had a message to deliver to Caesar. The Royal Palace had long been the symbol of impotence and inefficiency for more than two hundred years, when, in the year 2845, the death of Caesar XV threw Ape City into utter chaos. All the way back to the great Caesar I, when that Caesar's one and only son Cornelius had died and left Caesar without a natural heir, it had become the customary practice of the Caesar's to handpick their heirs through adoption. This adopted heir was always the Commander-in-Chief of the Ape Army, as the top military general in Ape City. And so Caesar I would adopt his heir, who would eventually become Caesar II, and so on and so forth. And so it was for over eight hundred years, an unbroken succession of Caesars running from one unto the next all the way back to the great Caesar himself. But in 2845, this all changed.

Caesar XV was an ape consumed with his own vanity, as well as his own lust for power. His greatest legacy as king was the Human Prohibitum, a series of new laws which, for the very first time, legally expelled humans from Council. Before the Prohibitum, Caesar I's legacy of an integrated society was still alive and well. To be sure, it had been fading into a distant memory by the time of Caesar XV, but it was nevertheless still the law of the land. This changed forever with the Prohibitum, which not only expelled humans from Council, but also ushered in the new branding system to Ape City.

As an ape consumed with power, he began to dream of an ape dynasty all to himself. He would eschew the adopted heir model and instead instate his own biological dynasty. When he died in 2845, Caesar XV left behind a son, Constantine, who grew up around and along his father's court with the full expectation of assuming the throne one day. There was also Titus, the Commander-in-Chief, who by tradition assumed that he would be adopted by Caesar and thus was felt that he was the rightful heir to the throne. When Caesar XV bid this tradition farewell, traditionalist apes were aghast at the idea of overturning an eight hundred year old tradition. The opposition crossed subspecies as well, with all kinds of apes opposing the new regime, be it chimpanzee, gorilla, or orangutan.

For four whole years, there was no legitimate heir to the throne of Ape City, as the factions of Titus and Constantine fought for power. In the absence of legitimate authority, the Ape Council voted itself absolute power until the civil war was conclusively decided. One Shall Not Kill Another, the supreme law of the land, was utterly disregarded, as a bloody civil war fought over the fate of the monarchy itself. The armies of Constantine and Titus fought fiercely throughout this time, sometimes in pitched battle, and sometimes in smaller raids and skirmishes, until one day in the summer of 2849. On that day, the fate of the monarchy was decided when the army of Titus marched on the Royal Palace, met by members of the Ape Army and the Council Guard. For ten days, Titus' apes laid siege to Ape City as its citizens awaited the results. Until finally, on that tenth day, Constantine emerged from the city walls and personally led his army to a great and complete victory. Titus was killed in the fighting, his followers dispersed and disappeared, and on the very next day the Ape Council formally recognized Constantine as Caesar XVI. The storm, it seemed, had passed.

But the Ape Council was not quick to give up its newly acquired power so easily, and when Caesar XVI died suddenly the very next year in 2850, his son Maximus, although crowned Caesar XVII, was never meant, and never allowed, to rule as an effective leader. From that day forward, there was never again a powerful Caesar. The Ape Council governed Ape City and ape society with absolute authority, with Caesar having no real governing power whatsoever. And for over the last three hundred years this was precisely the state of ape affairs, when Milo arrived to speak with Caesar.

Milo was well aware of Leo and Marius' most recent pet project. He was also strongly against just such a measure. As a devout pacifist, he had always felt that Ape City needed the ape-power to be present in Ape City for various public works projects, and to strengthen Ape City's infrastructure. Every expense in favor of such an imperialistic exercise deprived apes, and humans, at home of necessary resources. He had neither the time nor the imagination to entertain fleeting ideas of Ape Empire or expansion.

Milo, a clever politician, knew that without the votes in Council, he would have to go over it's head and try to win over Caesar himself. With Caesar, Milo believed he had an opportunity to achieve the inside track to power and influence. And through Caesar, even without the blessing of the Ape Council, Milo hoped he would be able to rectify many of the abuses of Caesar's, and Councils, past. He would speak directly to Caesar, who was currently up to his eyeballs in various scrolls.

"_Your majesty…_" Milo opened.

"_Yes. Milo._" Caesar said without even looking up.

"_We have a problem._" Milo continued.

"_No. You have a problem. Kings don't have problems._" Caesar was reading up on the history of the ape monarchy. He fancied himself a great student of history.

"_Nevertheless your majesty, I have a problem._" Milo replied, going along with Caesar's little game.

"_And what is your problem Milo?_" Caesar inquired.

"_As you, your Excellency, are well aware, during the session before last, Marius and his faction in the Council voted to form an exploratory expedition._" Milo couldn't take for granted that Caesar was in fact familiar with current events, so he felt it necessary to give a background.

"_Ok._" Caesar was not showing any signs of interest in what Milo was saying.

"_The expedition is forming as we speak, ready to march._" Milo said, still trying to get out as much information as he possibly could.

"_What do you want Milo? Out with it! I don't have time for this._" Caesar was in a very impatient mood this morning.

"_Your majesty. I feel that Ape City cannot afford to lose a thousand apes. We cannot afford to lose the amount of laborers that Marius and Leo have commissioned for this project._" Finally, Milo was getting to the point. Milo couldn't stand the fact that all that labor and ape-power was about to go down the drain in some stupid patriotic endeavor to try to achieve "glory" for Ape City.

"_And…_" Apparently that wasn't enough to get Caesar interested.

"_And we need to do something…_" Milo was done trying to give out the background info. It was time to be blunt.

"_What would you have me do? Ape Council has spoken._" Caesar, in line with his recent predecessors, was loathe to act contrary to the will of the Ape Council.

"_You are Caesar! You speak, and the Council listens. Not the other way around. You have the authority as Caesar to suspend and amend ape law so as to provide for the common defense in times of emergency. You must have seen the reports of the stabbings throughout the city." _

It was true, over the past few weeks and moths, a disturbing trend of random stabbing was becoming more and more of a problem. At first the victims were just random citizens, but slowly that changed as more and more prominent apes were falling victim to these unknown assassins.

_"Unknown assassins are killing apes as we speak, while you do nothing. Repeal the Human Prohibitum. Repeal the Human Reforms. Restore citizenship to the humans, we will have all the manpower we will ever need to rebuild Ape City and restore order here at home. To rebuild it in your image. Picture it. A reinvigorated Ape City, with humans and apes living alongside one another, as the great Caesar would have wanted. And not only that, but an entire population of humans will be forever indebted to you. Any remaining human agitation will disappear overnight. Dependent on you. You will be their liberator. And they will love you. Forever. We will never again have to fear human rebellion because you will be their champion. Caesar, the ape who freed the humans._" Milo pleaded. Milo had always expressed disappointment in how the monarchy had become so insignificant. He felt that a strong central authority was the best means of achieving well being for the greatest number of apes. If Milo could stroke Caesar's ego just enough, perhaps he would flex the remaining muscles of the monarchy in order to make policy. Milo needed the political clout that a dependent human class would give him and his faction in the Ape Council.

"_You are out of line Milo. Our police force is more than capable of handling the stabbings. You are wasting my time with this. No Caesar has ever declared a state of emergency. Ever. Not once in our entire history. Not once. And you come here now, at a time of peace, asking me to do what you know I can't. Tell this to the Ape Council if it weighs on you so much. If they make the call, I will listen._" Typically, Caesar wasn't hearing any of this talk about breaking with the Council.

"_Your majesty, I am in the minority. I don't have the votes!_" Milo said, just in case this fact escaped Caesar.

"_Then so be it. I will not act contrary to the will of the Council. If the Ape Council found this expedition to be worth the resources, then I abide by that decision. I do not see an emergency. I will not declare one without being called by the Council. I do not need humans to protect this city. I do not need humans to rebuild this city. And I definitely do not need the votes of humans to govern._" Milo replied, totally in character with the new Ape monarchy.

"_Your ma…_" Milo was cut off.

"_Goodbye Milo._" Caesar was done with the conversation. The Ape Council had spoken and that was that. Caesar would not act contrary to the will of the Ape Council.

Caesar went back to his scrolls, not even looking up at Milo to show him the door. Milo was taken aback, as Caesar was in rare form today. Typically, it was his custom to defer to the will of Council, and this remained true today. But it was the manner in which Caesar rebuked him that was such a shock, and a delightful surprise, to Milo. Maybe there was some backbone to this Caesar after all.

_So Caesar will abide by the will of the Council._ Milo though to himself. _Well then the Council is where I need to be._


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven:**

The time had come for Lucius to head off towards the east. Maurice and Lucius had been making their way towards the head of the expedition since they had left Leo's chambers. Now they were almost there.

"_So have you done anything like this before?_" Lucius wondered aloud of Maurice, his guide.

"_Like this? Oh no. Nothing like this, ever. No ape ever has. This is the single greatest expedition of apes the world has ever seen. And you are its leader._" Maurice reminded him.

Lucius let that last statement sink in as best he could. He was continuing to struggle with the idea that he, the historian, the scientist, was chosen to head such an important expedition. They continued towards the head of the expedition, and had begun to work past members of the expedition. Hundreds of ape soldiers were passing the time, checking their gear, watering their horses, anything to keep their minds occupied. Their purple tunics were unmistakable. Their black leather armor in place, their spears holstered, the gorillas were ready to do their duty. By far the vast majority of the expedition was made up of gorillas. They were the muscle of Ape City, the laborers, the soldiers, the police. Nine hundred gorillas, mostly soldiers but a hundred laborers mixed in for good measure, would be the real leaders of this expedition. Not even slaves were members of this force, as Leo felt it should be an ape expedition, due not to cheap slave labor but by the blood and sweat of everyday apes. Gorillas would pave the roads as they pushed forward. They would be the ones to found new ape cities. And they would be the ones who fought to preserve their own progress.

Lucius and Maurice were now reaching the diplomats of the expedition. While the gorillas would be doing most of the fighting, the diplomats, an even mix of both chimpanzees and orangutans, would do most of the talking. Far fewer in number, the chimpanzees and orangutans here were prepared to make contact with other ape cities, should they find any. From there some of them would stay behind, as diplomats, to keep up relations between that city and Ape City. It was not as glorious a job as that of the warrior gorillas, who literally fought and died for the glory of Ape City. Nevertheless, their role was vital to the prosperity of Ape City. Leo was right. Ape City was overcrowded. The population of the city was now reaching close to fifty thousand apes. Eventually resources would begin to become scarce. Fresh, clean water, the most important of resources, had been in short supply ever since the nuclear holocaust. New sources of fresh water would eventually need to be secured in order for Ape City to continue to thrive. And those diplomat chimpanzees would be the ones to work the backroom deals that would help to bring new freshwater to Ape City from the other ape cities out in the east.

There were the horses, three white horses at the head of the expedition, waiting for their masters.

"_White horses?_" Lucius asked. Traditionally, white horses were reserved either to members of the Royal Family or high ranking military officers.

"_Yes. Leo wanted to impress upon us the seriousness of our roles here. Especially you Lucius. I am not in charge of this expedition. You are._" Maurice explained.

"_Who is the third horse for?_" Lucius asked.

At that moment a towering gorilla figure approached the horse and mounted it effortlessly, as if he had been doing this since the day he was born. Now on horseback, the gorilla rode up to Lucius and Maurice.

"_Hello Maurice._" Said the gorilla.

Maurice nodded in acknowledgement.

"_And you must be Lucius. I am Otto. Commander-in-Chief of the Ape Army. Leo felt you might feel more at ease if you knew that I would be accompanying you to the east._" Otto said as he introduced himself.

An awesome wave of relief washed over Lucius. Maurice and Otto looked at each other, waited for the news to set in, and laughed.

"_Rest assured Lucius. Otto will be here, at your command Lucius. Leo wanted there to be no confusion about the chain of command here. You are in charge. You make the decisions as to the ends of any military action. Otto here will decide the means._" Lucius was in charge, subject to expert military and diplomatic supervision.

Lucius couldn't help but feel like a gorilla as he mounted onto his white horse. He suddenly felt mightier. Like the great Caesar himself. Slowly, ever so slowly, his lack of self confidence and his sense of inferiority were disappearing. His innate fear of failure was leaving him. Not that Lucius still didn't feel overwhelmed by the moment. But with Otto and Maurice watching both flanks, military and diplomatic, he felt capable. He felt strong.

"_Where to Lucius?_" Otto wanted orders.

"_Well our orders are to go to the east correct?_" Lucius wanted to make sure before going off on some unrelated tangent.

His guides nodded in affirmance.

"_Then we shall go northeast. My studies have shown nothing in the southwest besides death and desert. I can't see much of a point to an expedition if it's dead as soon as it departs. We will march due northeast. Are we all in agreement?_" Lucius was calling upon his extensive personal experience with the maps and geography of this part of the world.

"_We are._" Maurice said.

"_We are._" Otto followed.

"_Ok then Otto. Give the order to march and let us be on our way._" Lucius said as he gave out his first order.

As Otto turned to face some of his subordinate officers to give the marching orders, a lone rider galloped up to the head of the expedition.

"_Lucius. A rider!_" Shouted out an anonymous ape.

The rider made his way to Lucius.

"_Lucius. Lucius. I have a message for you. It's come straight from Odora._" The rider said as he handed the message to Lucius, who opened it up and began to read it.

DEAR LUCIUS,

HOPEFULLY THIS MESSAGE REACHES YOU BEFORE YOU HEAD OFF. I JUST WANTED TO WISH YOU GOOD LUCK. AND TO TELL YOU NOT TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR WORK WHILE YOU ARE AWAY. I PROMISE I WILL TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING WHILE YOU'RE GONE. I'VE ALREADY CHECKED TODAY'S HUMAN REPORTS. SO DON'T WORRY!

WITH LOVE,

ODORA

P.S. BRING ME A SOUVENEIR!

P.P.S. GOOD LUCK!

Lucius finished the letter and stuffed it away inside his pocket. He was relieved to hear the news that she was remembering, so far at least, to check the latest reports on the human movements. He was already anxious to come back home so that he could complete his work. But for now he was here, at the head of this great expedition, ready to set out into the east for the glory of Ape City. Duty had called upon Lucius, and he was ready to do his duty.

Otto had ordered the apes to march, and so they marched. Lucius, and his expedition, were on their way.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight:**

Odora opened up the lab for another typical morning of work. Lucius had been on the march for almost two weeks now. The work there had become more than a little monotonous. Every morning she would open up the lab. Then she would make sure that all of the equipment was turned on and ready to be used. Then she would wash all of her instruments, again, just to make sure that the lab was free from contamination of any kind. Then, finally, she would get to work.

The first order of business today, as it was every other day, was to check Lucius' reports of human activity. This was done, as it always was, and the data was entered into Lucius' laboratory notebook. This had become a bit of a chore for Odora, who found the work to be quite dull, boring, and frankly not worth her time. She appreciated scientific research into human society as much as anybody, but not only did she disagree with Lucius' hypothesis as far as reinserting a branded human into the wild was concerned, but she further believed that humans would not even be able to recognize whether or not the reinserted human was an original member of the pack in the first place, thus negating Lucius' entire premise.

But after that dull work was behind her, Odora moved on to her Council appointed task of preserving and sealing those parts of the Sacred Scrolls which had been deemed too dangerous for ape society. Back even before Lucius and his expedition had left for the east, Odora had collected the Sacred Scrolls in their entirety and had brought them into the lab. She didn't know what to make of all of these countless scrolls, but she didn't know any better way to begin her task than to start at the very beginning. And so she began with the very first scroll and worked from there.

"_In the beginning, God created beast and man, so that both might live in friendship and share dominion over a world at peace. But in the fullness of time, evil men betrayed God's trust and, in disobedience to His holy word, waged bloody wars...not only against their own kind, but against the apes, whom they reduced to slavery. Then God, in His wrath, sent the world a savior, miraculously born of two apes who had descended on Earth from Earth's own future. And man was afraid, for both parent apes possessed the power of speech. So both were brutally murdered. But the child ape survived and grew up to set his fellow creatures free from the yoke of human slavery. Yet, in the aftermath of his victory, the surface of the world was ravaged by the evilest war in human history. The great cities of the world split asunder and were flattened. And out of one such city, our savior led a remnant of those who survived in search of greener pastures, where ape and human might forever live in friendship, according to divine will._"

This was the essence of what was to be erased from the Sacred Scrolls. This scroll, above all others, was the source of all of the orangutan's fears towards the humans. The very idea that ape was once man's equal, much less subservient to man, was heresy. And that man once possessed such advanced technology that had the awesome potential to flatten the earth, was as unnerving to the Ape Council as anything else in the entire Sacred Scrolls. And so, Odora sealed that scroll away in a lambskin envelope and struck all reference of that particular scroll from the archives. That scroll was then set to be placed into a secret cave that lies directly beneath the Ape Council, and there it would remain for all time. And so she kept at it, scroll after scroll, looking for any reference to the origins of Ape City, Cornelius, Zira, the Revolution, or any other mention of ape slaves or their human masters. After two weeks, Odora's task was more or less finished. The remaining scrolls simply contained generic commandments from God as laid forth by the Lawgiver, who now shared his identity with Caesar I. Oddly enough, one of the original commandments was to be restored; Thou Shalt Not Kill Another was restored back to Ape Shall Not Kill Ape, as originally set forth by Caesar, now no longer the Glorious Leader of the Revolution, but instead simply the Great Lawgiver. Odora, through the Council's directives, also sealed those parts of the Scrolls that made any mention of ape and human equality. She reasoned that if this whole task was necessary because of fears of some sort of human takeover, then any ideas of human equality had to be erased forever. It was tragic, as there was so little left of the original Sacred Scrolls. After sealing off the scrolls pertaining to Zira and Cornelius, the Revolution, and ape servitude, there was nothing left of true ape history. There were only ape aggrandizing statements and laws governing only intra ape affairs, with no mention whatsoever of humans.

There was, however, more work to be done. And Odora had to keep trudging through the Scrolls. One issue she ran into was that now that she had sealed off the Sacred Scrolls, there was no mention of humans! But since she had no mandate from the Council regarding creating new scrolls from whole cloth, she had to just move past it and not worry about gaps in the Sacred Scrolls or other discrepancies.

All that remained of Odora's task now was one scroll in particular that had caught her attention. It had fallen out of Lucius' HISTORY OF THE APES but had already been sealed. And it wasn't listed on the archives, and so it technically shouldn't exist. But Odora succumbed to her own curiosity and couldn't resist reading it. This scroll told a story older than Zira and Cornelius. It told of the world that they had come from. They had come from a world not in existence yet, but that would exist. And it told of a man named Taylor, who came from the stars and who spoke, at a time when no man spoke. Odora read through this scroll, learning all of these details for the very first time. Contrary to the very scrolls that she was censoring, Cornelius and Zira came to Earth not because they were sent by God to save apes and humanity, but rather they left their world to escape the destruction of the planet, a planet which was being destroyed as a result of an ape war of aggression; they were not saviors, but refugees. Odora had never heard any of this before. She knew of Zira and Cornelius of course, vaguely, but she like the other apes of Ape City were never told with any detail where they had come from.

Odora didn't know what to do. She had never seen this scroll before and had no clue as to who had previously sealed it, or why. But she felt that it was important to preserve. Rather than seal it again, or even destroy it, Odora decided to copy it and hide it in the lab. She felt that it was too important to hide away from the world. And so she got busy copying down this origin scroll word for word, and when she was finished she began to write a letter to Lucius. She wanted to know if he knew anything about this new secret scroll. She wanted to know what she should do.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine:**

Lucius and the expedition had been on the march for a little over two weeks now. They had travelled nearly two hundred and twenty miles already. The expedition had passed many of the ruins of the old forbidden city. The skyscrapers of the old world lay tattered and empty, relics of a world where mankind had held the earth hostage by the push of a single button. Empty and alone, Lucius couldn't help but try to imagine what that world was like back when it was alive. Those buildings were like skeletons, with no flesh or life to them. They were bones standing naked with nothing left to support. The old, forbidden city, was absolutely dead. And now safely away from that old city, the expedition was approaching the ruins of another city, a city that no ape, as far as anybody knew, had ever laid eyes on before. As Lucius strode forward, he saw an old metal sign that had somehow weathered the nuclear holocaust, still reminding those alive who ventured before it that it was still fighting to be there. Emblazoned on the front of this metal sign were six simple words:

WELCOME TO SACRAMENTO, THE INDOMITABLE CITY.

"_Lucius?_" Asked Maurice.

"_Yes._" Lucius replied.

"_Do you have any idea where we are?_" Maurice was already absolutely lost.

"_Well. It appears that we are now entering an old prewar city. Sacramento._" Lucius was trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind.

"_All right. What is Sacramento?_" Maurice wondered aloud.

"_Well. Sacramento before the war was the capital of the state of California. You see, before man turned his world into a wasteland, he divided his country into several smaller countries. Now they, for whatever reason, called these states. Why they did this? I don't know. But perhaps it was for ease of administration or maybe it made their land more defensible. In any case, one of those states was called California, and Sacramento was its capital." _Lucius tried to explain.

Lucius could see that Maurice and Otto wanted the short version.

_"It is a different forbidden city, if you will._" Lucius said bluntly.

"_Well why didn't you just say that?_ _So it was destroyed in the war as well I take it?_" Maurice wanted simple answers to simple answers from Lucius. Usually it was the other way around

"_It must have. Take a look around. The city blocks have been leveled. Imagine. Imagine a weapon that could level an entire city. A weapon that could kill so many. No creature ever so perfected the art of destroying itself than that of man._" Lucius sounded as if he, in a way, respected the destructive power of man. Or at the very least, he had to respect the scientific prowess of mankind. The ability of man to create, as well as its power to destroy, was absolutely incredible.

After a brief stop to look over the remains of Old Sacramento, the expedition moved forward. Nowhere in sight was a sign of life whatsoever. No humans, no apes, nothing.

"_Lucius. I would advise that we go around the city. If Sacramento is anything like the forbidden city, then it will be dangerous._" Otto, a gorilla always concerned with the task at hand, actually was trying to avoid a fight.

Lucius thought about what they should do. On the one hand, going around the ruins of the old city would perhaps cost them an entire day's march. Time was a precious commodity for the expedition. There was technically no time limit on the expedition, but Lucius would like to be home sooner rather than later. Also, going around the city would take them off their chosen road, and they would simply be hoping that there were not more humans outside the city. On the other hand, Otto had a point when it came to the dangers of these old ruined cities. Anybody could be hiding among the ruins. And if it was just another version of the forbidden city, then there would most certainly be humans living there. Humans who were more likely than not hostile to apes; desperate to impose their old regime on the world once more.

Lucius decided to think on it for a moment, not wanting to make a mistake with his first executive decision of the expedition.

"_We will go through it. We have direct orders from Leo and the Ape Council to establish diplomatic relations with any existing ape cities or settlements, or find new life, be it either ape or human. We are also here to declare the sovereignty of Ape City, and if that means that we come under fire then so be it. We will go through it and deal with the consequences. If we run into trouble, that is what you are here for Otto._" Lucius had made his decision.

Lucius loved getting to feel tough. It wasn't every day that a chimpanzee got to give a direct order to a gorilla, much less a gorilla in full battle attire. Lucius would have to work to make sure that this newfound power and responsibility did not go to his head and corrupt his soul. But for now, he felt comfortable with his decision. He had directives which came directly from the Ape Council, and he also had an army of gorillas at his back. So he was confident that he could survive anything he encountered on this expedition.

"_Very well._" Otto had his orders.

Maurice turned to his inferior officers in order to give the apes their march orders. The message went through the proper channels of communication and in the blink of an eye, the march was back on. The expedition marched through the ruins of Old Sacramento. Scores of old dilapidated buildings passed them by. It was so quiet that they could hear themselves think. Not a peep was heard from any nook or cranny of the old city.

"_It's amazing isn't it? This was once a great and powerful city. Just like the forbidden city really. Do you think there was ever a great Caesar who led apes from bondage in this city?_" Maurice wondered.

It was an interesting proposition. Other apes, and other ape cities, with their own histories. Lucius wondered about the possibility of other ape cities that may or may not exist out there. They didn't know about them, and so it stood to reason that they didn't know about them back in Ape City. Therefore, it would be entirely possible for a separate ape city to grow and thrive in complete isolation from the Caesars and the events of Ape City's origin. What if there was an advanced ape city out there, with its own religion, own culture, own history? What if there were completely integrated ape societies that welcomed humans with open citizenship? Or what if these new ape cities fully enslaved humanity, with no regard whatsoever for human rights? What if there were human cities out there, without any ape governance, and with apes subjected to slavery? These were all important questions that Lucius did not have answers for. But at this moment Lucius had no real reason to believe that there were any other ape or human cities out there, and so he would worry about those possibilities when they presented themselves.

"_Possibly. But we may never know the histories of all these old cities, or of any ape cities which they may have spawned. We could be the only ape city that exists. Or we could be but one of many. That's what we are here to find out._" Lucius responded.

The expedition continued to make its way through Old Sacramento's main thoroughfare, wasting no time in its mission to get through the ruins of the city as quickly as possible. Old burnt out cars and trucks littered the road, both in the road and to the sides of it. The old remains of human bodies could be seen strewn across their path. Apparently the force of the atomic blasts killed the human inhabitants instantly, and either the ash, soot, or debris encased the victims in a cocoon of death, trapping them for all time. The apes tried their best to ignore their surroundings, working their way with a singular purpose, getting out of these ruins, but this was not always entirely possible.

The expedition was about halfway through the ruins of the old city when a loud clank was heard off in one of the alleys. The expedition stopped instantly upon hearing it.

"_Formations!_" Ordered Otto.

The apes broke into several smaller units which composed of rows upon rows of apes. Lucius marveled at the military efficiency of Otto and his warrior gorillas. They were so disciplined, almost mindless. Lucius thought to himself that if chimpanzees ever served in the army in a combat role, he doubted that they would ever be as organized as these gorillas.

"_Otto what is going on?_" Asked Lucius.

"_Always prepare for the worst Lucius._" Remarked Otto.

As the apes prepared for battle, Lucius scanned the area to find the source of the commotion. He peered over into an alley underneath a bridge across an old highway and saw movement. He had found the source of the noise. Suddenly, out of the shadows, there emerged a tall lanky figure that was carrying something in its arms. At first Lucius couldn't make out what this shadowy figure was, but after a few seconds it was unmistakable. A single human woman emerged from out of the shadows. The gorillas were ready to do battle if need be.

"_What are your orders Lucius?_" Asked Otto, ready to give the order to take this human, dead or alive.

Lucius had to make his second executive decision of this expedition, and this one was a decision under fire.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten:**

Milo had retreated back into the depths of Ape City. His mind couldn't help but keep going back to his prior meeting with Caesar. The door had been left open to the possibility of Caesar declaring a state of emergency. It just had to originate with the Ape Council. Milo would have to be as shrewd as ever. Marius and Leo, part of the same faction at Council, would no doubt block any effort of Milo's to push for a Call to Caesar. Milo instinctively knew what Leo and Marius had in mind for their version of the future. Their world envisioned secrecy and suppression, with chimpanzees relegated to the role of the loyal opposition, but without any real power, while gorillas and orangutans held all of the important posts in ape government. Milo wanted nothing to do with orangutan notions of sealing Sacred Scrolls and hiding the truth of their culture. Nor did he much care for gorilla aggression , adventurism and militarism. But as long as Marius and his conservative faction held the majority in the Ape Council, and Leo held the High Councillorship, chimpanzees would remain inferior among the apes. Something had to be done to save Ape City from the current regime. Ape City was overpopulated. Economic inequality was a growing concern. And humans were finding themselves under attack politically from many different factions from within Ape City. And in the meantime, Marius and Leo were engaging in this expensive and dangerous expedition abroad, squandering precious blood and treasure while, as Milo would say constantly at Council, apes suffered at home.

Milo passed by the ghettos of Ape City. This was the side of Ape City many in the Ape Council would prefer was never seen by anyone. They sought to sweep the ghettos of the city under the rug as they touted the virtues of Ape City as the land of economic opportunity for all apes. For these apes in the ghettos, it was kill or be killed, steal or starve. Milo himself was born in the bowels of one of these ghettos. He knew better than most the cycle of despair that engulfed the apes that lived there. Born in 3130 the son of a single mother with multiple substance abuse issues, Milo was able to scrap on by only with the charity of kind strangers. It was only when in his teens that he was able to break the chain of dependency, and educate himself in the law. Milo devoured book after book in the various libraries of Ape City, desperate to lift himself up from his sad lot in life. He finally got an opportunity as a young eighteen year old ape when he was offered an apprenticeship for a prominent orangutan lawyer. Milo served in this capacity as a legal apprentice for several years before he finally earned his law license. Milo then opened up a law practice in the ghettos of Ape City, where he served the undervalued and impoverished citizens of Ape City, as well as some humans, for seventeen years. It was at this time, in 3168, that he was elected to the Ape Council with thanks in large part to the votes of those very apes that he was looking at now, the poor and the downtrodden. At Ape Council Milo made a name for himself for being an outspoken progressive and strong human rights advocate, as well as for underprivileged apes. He fought hard against the implementation of the Human Reforms and constantly urged the Ape Council to tone down the anti-human rhetoric that had been filling the halls.

These were the same apes that Milo sought as part of his new coalition to take over the Ape Council. But they would not be enough; he would need the votes of humans. Humans were the key to disrupting the stranglehold Marius and Leo's unspoken alliance had on the Ape Council. By enfranchising humanity, Milo reasoned, he could therefore secure their vote. Milo could picture himself at the head of a new coalition of middle and lower class apes, pushed into power with the backing of the humans in Ape City. Finally Milo would dislodge Marius from his position of power in the Council, and a new era of progressiveism and liberalism would finally wash over Ape City, cleansing it from its current conservative taint. Gone forever would be the beating of the chests of the gorillas in Ape City. And gone too would be the superficial patriotism that polluted Ape City, blinding it from the truth that the apes and humans were in fact equals. In fact, the apes in many ways were inferior to the humans. Humans, after all, ruled the planet before God sent Cornelius and Zira. So it is only fitting, or so Milo believed, that man and ape should at least live in harmony with one another, instead of one species always trying to destroy the other. All he needed now was just a simple majority of the human vote, and his dream would be a reality. But unless and until Caesar declared a state of emergency and suspended and amended ape law, humans would never be allowed to vote and thus the balance of power would remain unchanged in Marius' favor. The Human Prohibitum, as well as the other Human Reforms, was the law of the land, and they absolutely prevented humanity from citizenship, much less the right to vote.

Milo passed by many of the apes in the ghetto, managing to get by without being molested by any of the apes or humans who were strewn about, lost in the fog and misery of their own lives. The stink of the ghetto was almost unbearable as he made his way into a nearby alley, and ultimately to a small apartment tucked away in the back. He knocked three times and awaited the response.

"_Who is it? What do you want?_" Said the shadowy figure.

"_It's me._" Milo replied.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Chapter Eleven:**

"_Stand down!_" Ordered Lucius.

This was Lucius' command to Otto as the apes were readying themselves for battle. Lucius had little desire for bloodshed, and he couldn't help but give in to his prejudices just a bit. He couldn't help but feel that on some level, Otto and his gorilla soldiers lusted for battle, while Maurice and his orangutan brain plotted through every eventuality in his keen mind while chaos ensued around him.

"_Maurice, send a messenger over to talk with that human._" Lucius instructed.

"_But sir,"_Otto interrupted,_"it could be dangerous. It could be a trap._"

"_Or it could be a human woman who needs our help. Maurice, send one of the chimps, with an escort. Go._" Lucius insisted.

"_Yes sir._" Maurice said, as he disappeared back into the ranks searching for personnel. Lucius could tell that Otto disagreed with the order.

"_You want to say something?_" Asked Lucius.

"_Sir. I believe this is a mistake. I do not believe you are fully informed of the risks involved here. That is a human. Humans are…_" Otto wanted to lecture Lucius on military matters. It was hard for him to take orders from a chimpanzee.

"_Humans are still an important part of our world Otto. We are apes. We represent Ape City. And the last time I checked, humans, while not citizens, are members of Ape City. And therefore we represent them as. I understand that I may just be a simple scientist. A simple historian, with no military training. But I do not intend to give the order to use force unless I am absolutely convinced that force s necessary._" Lucius gave the idealistic response. He never bought into the line that humans were dumb brutes. Of course they were inferior to an ape, that was for sure, but they still were entitled to dignity and respect.

And with that, Otto left to recruit the escort for the messenger. Lucius felt good in his ability to talk tough to a gorilla Commander-in-Chief. But he couldn't help but feel doubt and fear in his decision. What if Otto and Maurice were right? After all, they were the experts brought along for the very purpose of advising him on military and diplomatic affairs. What would he do if this was a trap and apes died? Who was he after all? He was just a civilian chimpanzee who didn't know the first thing about the affairs of state or of military matters. Nevertheless, he was chosen to lead this expedition and he would lead it as he saw fit.

The human woman had not approached the Ape Army during this time of deliberation. But she was clearly holding something, something wrapped up in a blanket or shroud of some kind. Whatever it was, they were both filthy and covered in dirt from top to bottom. Lucius continued to think over his decision to send a messenger when finally, the chosen messenger and her military escort arrived at the head of the expedition.

"_Lucius, this is Evey. She is our messenger. And these two gorillas will be her escort._" Maurice said.

The young chimpanzee was pale as a ghost. Lucius could tell that she was terrified.

"_Hello Evey. How old are you?_" Asked Lucius.

"_Sixteen._" She replied.

"_And do you have a family Evey?_"

"_Yes. A daughter. Lucy._" She said.

"_Excellent. Evey you are relieved from duty. You are free to go back home to your family. Your escort here will be in charge of taking back to your home in Ape City._" Lucius wanted no part in sending a young mother into harm's way.

The two ape escorts looked at one another, not knowing what to say or do. Otto and Maurice exchanged looks, incredulous at what was taking place.

"_You have your orders. Take her home, and return to the expedition as soon as you can. Now go._" Lucius repeated.

Evey, not sure of what to make of this, said the only thing on her mind.

"_Thank you sir._" She said.

Lucius turned and looked back at the woman, who had not moved since she emerged from the shadows. Lucius called for his general.

"_Otto. Come with me. We will do this ourselves. I am not going to send in a child with a family to do this._" Lucius explained.

The two of them rode together, without any escort, towards the woman. Rubble was everywhere, as the path they crossed to reach the woman was over what appeared to have been a bridge before the war. On either side of them were huge piles of rock and other rubble that must have been the beginning and end of the bridge that they were now walking over. Lucius was feeling more and more uncomfortable as they approached the woman. Otto reached over and got Lucius' attention.

"_Sir. This is a mistake. We are entering an indefensible position. If this is an ambush, then we are already dead. Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. We must turn back._" Otto was desperate to have Lucius listen to him.

"_No Otto. We will keep moving._" Lucius was set on this course.

They could hear the woman crying at this point they were so close. They were now probably a hundred yards away from the expedition. They were alone. And suddenly, they stopped.

"_You there!_" Lucius called out to the woman.

"_Hurt?_" Lucius had to be careful to use words and phrases that could be understood clearly by humans.

"_Hungry?_" Otto butted in.

The woman stood there in dead silence. And then she ran away under one of the several large piles of rubble in the area, into a tunnel or underground passageway of some sort.

"_Wait._" Lucius yelled as he rode towards her.

"_Lucius!_" Otto yelled in fear as he tried to keep up.

Suddenly, what had to have been a few dozen humans emerged overhead, encircling the two apes from the top at what was now clearly an impact crater from one of the many bombs that fell during the war. Their leader, who wore only a type of red face paint, and which separated him from the other humans, yelled only a single command.

"_KILL!_" The leader of the humans ordered.

"_TURN AND RIDE! NOW_" Otto screamed to Lucius. They turned their horses around and bolted back to the front lines. The humans threw rocks, spears, and shot projectles from crude bows and arrows. Nevertheless, the attack was a sophisticated military maneuver, especially for humans, who had heretofore showed little capacity for concerted action. Lucius couldn't help but think about his earlier hypothesis. These humans were moving just as he had predicted; a pack of humans, no more than thirty, being led by an alpha male. What was unique here was that this pack of humans was not only moving in a pack, as predicted, but that they had evolved to taking concerted, coordinated, hostile action. There was sophistication to this attack. It was, to be sure, crude. But it involved a certain amount of time and planning to execute an ambush of this type. As it was, Lucius and Otto were able to ride back to the expedition relatively easily without any injury to either one of them. But the scientist in Lucius was absolutely fascinated by this turn of events, while the soldier in Otto was not amused.

"_Sir. Orders?_" Otto wanted to know what to do, and fast.

Lucius' mind was still back in his lab, going over the migratory data in his head.

"_SIR!_"

That second outburst caught Lucius' attention.

"_Orders?!_" Otto repeated.

"_Clear the area. Now!_" Lucius gave the order.

"_FORMATIONS!_" Otto roared.

The Ape Army fell in line. Weapons in hand.

"_NOW FIGHT LIKE APES!_" Otto let out the battle cry of the apes.

The gorillas marched in perfect formation on their way, galloping on all fours, to the humans. The humans scattered, scurrying into the various tunnels and hidden passageways that only they knew existed. The few humans who were unfortunate enough to be caught before reaching shelter were beaten to death; their heads bashed in with the gorilla soldiers' bare hands. The battle was quick and decisive. Of the thirty or so humans present, six bodies were found. The rest had disappeared. No apes were wounded or killed.

Lucius was left to think about the events of the day as Otto and the Ape Army cleared the battlefield. Besides the obvious scientific implications of the battle, from a military standpoint, Lucius was getting valuable on the job training. He could never be that selfishly stupid again. Otto and Maurice were there for a reason, and his disregard of their counsel could have cost him, or any of the other apes at his command, their lives. Otto came back to the head of the expedition with his final report.

"_The field is ours. No dead or wounded. Do you wish to pursue?_" Otto asked.

"_No. No. I, don't think that will be necessary Otto. Just, just get the apes ready to march. We need to keep moving. I'd like to reach Old Reno by the end of the week._" Lucius explained.

"_Where is that?_" Otto asked again.

"_It's an old human city on the other side of the forest, to the northeast._" Lucius said.

"_Very well then. We will march in one hour._" Otto said, as he went back to speak to the apes.

Lucius walked away from the scene of the battle. He was still so shaken up at his own display of hubris that had almost cost him everything. Before he could dwell any further in self pity, a rider approached.

"_Sir. I have a message to deliver to Lucius, head of the expedition._" Spoke the rider.

"_I'm Lucius. Thank you._" He replied.

Lucius' sadness gave way to joy as he saw that the letter was from Odora.

DEAR LUCIUS,

I HOPE THIS LETTER FINDS YOU IN GOOD SPIRITS. I HAVE MISSED HAVING YOU IN THE LAB FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS. REST ASSURED, THE LAB IS OPERATING SMOOTHLY. GUESS WHAT? IT APPEARS AS THOUGH YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT THE HUMANS. IT LOOKS LIKE THEY MOVE IN PACKS AS YOU SUSPECTED ALL ALONG. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

I WANTED TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY OTHER JOB HERE, SEALING OFF THE SACRED SCROLLS. I RAN ACROSS A PARTICULAR SCROLL THE OTHER DAY. I HAD NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE AND I WAS CURIOUS IF YOU HAD. IT FELL OUT OF YOUR HISTORY OF THE APES. THIS SCROLL TELLS OF THE WORLD THAT CAESAR I CAME FROM, AND THAT OF HIS PARENTS, CORNELIUS AND ZIRA. ACCORDING TO THIS SCROLL THEY DIDN'T COME BECAUSE GOD SENT THEM AS SAVIORS, BUT BECAUSE THE WORLD THEY CAME FROM WAS DESTROYED. OUR WORLD OF THE FUTURE, THE EARTH, WAS DESTROYED BY THE WEAPONS OF MAN, BUT AS A RESULT OF AN APE WAR OF AGGRESSION. AND APPARENTLY THIS WHOLE CHAIN OF EVENTS BEGAN WHEN A MAN FROM THE PAST CRASHED TO EARTH FROM THE STARS, TELLING OF A TIME WHEN MAN RULED THE PLANET AND APES WERE DUMB. THAT MAN, A MAN NAMED TAYLOR, DIED WHEN THE EARTH WAS DESTROYED AFTER THE APE ARMY MARCHED INTO THE FORBIDDEN CITY.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS? I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE HEARD OF OUR WORLD BEING DESTROYED BECAUSE OF AN APE WAR OF AGGRESSION. ALL WE, OR I, HAD EVER BEEN TOLD IS THAT GOD HIMSELF SENT CORNELIUS AND ZIRA TO EARTH FROM OUR FUTURE IN ORDER TO SAVE THE APES FROM SLAVERY. PLEASE CONTACT ME FURTHER, AS I DO NOT WANT TO GO INTO ANY FURTHER DETAIL AT HIS TIME, BUT I AM CONFUSED AND WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. PLEASE WRITE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

I MISS YOU VERY MUCH AND I HOPE THE EXPEDITION IS A SUCCESS. I WILL WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU. GOODBYE AND FAREWELL.

SINCERELY,

ODORA

Lucius had no idea how to respond to the letter. Like Odora, and like most, if not all apes, Lucius had only ever been taught the story of Cornelius and Zira in a religious context. It wasn't until he uncovered this hidden scroll at an archaeological dig in his youth that Lucius first learned the truth. Like all apes, he was told that God sent them from the future to save the apes. This new knowledge about an ape war of aggression was a revelation to him as it surely was to Odora now. As the apes began to prepare for the long march to the northeast, Lucius got out a piece of parchment and a pen and began to write his response.


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve:**

Leo was making his daily trip into the markets of Ape City. He was well known for going into the marketplace and buying up all of the oranges that he could find. If he had a vice, it would probably be his addiction to oranges. All too often Leo could be seen chomping down on bags of oranges or gulping down gallons of orange juice. Many of his political enemies throughout his lifetime would joke that he could never be corrupted, except by the produce ape.

On this particular day, however, Leo wasn't so much interested in buying up oranges as he was with buying a new toy for his young granddaughter, who was about to turn just four years old. She just loved little dolls made by the artisans in the Ape City marketplace, and he had promised her that he would get one for her birthday. And she was most efficient at ensuring that her grandfather never forgot what to get her.

Leo made his way through the crowd as best he could. He loved to speak to as many apes in the city as possible. He felt that he had a civic duty to maintain regular appearances with his constituents. As one might imagine, the four Council Guards that were watching over the High Councilor were on high alert. The head of the Council Guard, none other than Maurice himself, the Chief of Staff now off with Lucius on expedition, was always nervous with the security situation in Ape City. He just felt that the High Councilor needed more protections. Either Leo needed to give up his strolls through the marketplace, or he needed a larger security detail. Leo, however, would not approve of the additional expense and vetoed any legislation aimed at beefing up the security entourage of the High Councilor. Large crowds made the Council Guards nervous. They had advised Leo on multiple occasions that it was far too dangerous for him to keep up with his daily walks through the marketplace, especially lately, but he disregarded their concerns as irrelevant; he was a public servant and would not deny Ape City an opportunity to see or speak with their High Councilor.

The High Councilor had reached a table in the market occupied by two orangutans who were selling the toys that he needed.

"_Good day to you fine young apes. How are you?_" Leo asked.

"_We are fine High Councilor. How are you?_" The merchant replied. It was a great honor to have the High Councilor attend their market shop.

"_I couldn't be better. So what are your names?_" Leo made it a habit of getting to know his constituents. It wasn't for show, he meant it.

"_Sulla, and this is Max._" Sulla said.

"_Well. It's been very nice to meet you Sulla, and you Max. Please show me your products?_" Leo had to make sure he didn't forget the doll, or else his granddaughter would really let him have it.

"_Looking for anything in particular High Councilor?_" Sulla asked.

"_My granddaughter is looking for a human doll. She wanted a live human of course, but I will not allow her to keep slaves. But I couldn't hold out when she gave me that sweet face of hers and asked for a human doll instead. And so here I am._" Leo detested the practice of keeping humans as slaves, or even as pets. Not all humans were eligible for such treatment, but to Leo, none should ever be eligible. Although in his younger years Leo had fought against the humans, as he got older he had begun to soften in his attitudes towards them. And even back when he fought against the humans, he never once believed that they should be treated with cruelty. But Leo did absolutely believe in the superiority of apes, and also, perhaps with a tinge of paternalism, that if man were indeed allowed to survive, laws were needed to make sure that they were not annihilated by the apes, or by themselves.

"_Well perfect. You came just in time High Councilor. I have a stuffed human doll right here. Made in Ape City by ape workers of course, but it sounds like it will be just what your granddaughter is looking for._" Sulla was ready to make the sale.

"_Let's have a look._" Leo was ready to buy.

Sulla went behind a curtain for a brief moment and reemerged with the doll for the High Councilor.

"_This is it High Councilor._" Sulla sounded as if the doll was his own daughter. He was so proud to show it to the High Councilor.

Leo picked up the doll from Sulla and inspected it closely. Its stitching was nearly brand new. Wherever it was made, it was made recently, and with a high degree of skill. It suited him just fine.

"_This will work just fine. Thank you Sulla. How much?_" Leo asked.

"_Normally I would charge twenty units for a high quality doll like that. But I'll make an exception for the High Councilor. Ten units._" Sulla was trying to charm the High Councilor by this point.

"_Twenty units it is. Thank you Sulla. Thank you Max._" Leo would never allow himself to be treated differently simply based on his status.

Leo took his doll and looked it over one last time before putting it away in his leather pouch and making his way back home. He tucked the doll away as he turned around to leave the table. When he turned away from the table, a loud crash was heard off in the back of one of the nearby alleys. It sounded like the shattering of glass, followed immediately by gunshots and screams. In response to the threat the Council Guards responded exactly as one would expect them to. Two left to attend to the noise and two stayed with the High Councilor. But this time it was different. Before the Council Guards could even properly secure Leo, he was found lying in the dirt in a pool of his own blood, clutching his chest. It had happened so fast, as if the assassin knew exactly how the High Councilor and the Council Guards would act.

The High Councilor had been stabbed.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen:**

Odora couldn't help but feel a bit paranoid. She had willingly violated ape law by copying a Sacred Scroll without legal authorization. But she didn't know what else to do. How could she seal such an interesting scroll away from the world? If she didn't know anything about this particular scroll, then it was very likely that she wasn't alone. Was this just lost history? Or was this scroll deliberately hidden from the masses? Either way, she had no clue as to what her next move was going to be with this new piece of information. But if anyone would know what to do, it would be Lucius.

It had been almost three weeks since Odora had last written Lucius, and over five weeks since the expedition had begun. Odora's anticipation for Lucius' response was building as each day came and went. She would clean the lab from top to bottom multiple times each and every day as that was all she could do to keep her mind from dwelling on his return letter. Day after day came and went as the riders would come and go without any mail from Lucius. Her thoughts turned to Lucius more and more, needing to know whether he had any knowledge of the contents of this new scroll. She needed to know if Lucius knew that this scroll told far different story of the origins of the apes than the one they had been led to believe.

And then finally the knock on the door came at last. Odora tried to keep her expectations in check as she answered the door. She was tired of the bitter disappointments she had to face on a daily basis when the human migratory reports came in instead of word from Lucius. So this time she answered the knock at the door with a tinge of apprehension.

"_Yes?_" Odora said as she opened the door.

"_Odora?_" The rider asked.

"_Yes. I am Odora._" She answered.

"_You have a letter from Lucius. Here you go. Have a nice day._" The messenger said as he handed Odora the letter and went on his way.

The letter wasn't incredibly long, but it was from Lucius. And for that Odora could not be more thankful. She couldn't contain her excitement as she opened up the letter and began to read.

DEAR ODORA,

I'M SORRY TO REPORT THAT FOR ALL THE TIME THAT YOU MUST HAVE BEEN WAITING TO RECEIVE THIS LETTER, IT WILL HAVE TO BE SHORT. WE JUST FOUGHT THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE CAMPAIGN. I'M HAPPY TO SAY THAT WE SUFFERED NO CASUALTIES.

I'M EXCITED TO HEAR THE NEWS OF THE LATEST BATCH OF HUMAN MIGRATORY DATA. I MUST SAY, AFTER THE LAST FEW DAYS, I FULLY BELIEVE THE REPORTS..

AS TO THE SACRED SCROLL THAT YOU HAVE MENTIONED. YOU MUST TELL NO ONE OF WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN. THE ORANGUTANS AT COUNCIL WOULD NOT BE PLEASED TO HEAR THAT IT HAD BEEN UNCOVERED. YES, I HAVE SEEN THE SCROLL ITSELF AND AM AWARE OF IT'S CONTENTS. I SHOULD HAVE BURNED IT INSTANTLY BUT I WAS, UNFORTUNATELY, TOO GOOD A HISTORIAN TO HAVE IT DESTROYED. ONCE UPON A TIME I DID A DIG OVER AT THE FORBIDDEN CITY AND I UNCOVERED THE SCROLL, AMONG OTHER ARTIFACTS. SOME OF THESE WERE TAPES, VIDEO TAPES, THAT SHOWED CORNELIUS HIMSELF, FATHER OF CAESAR I, TELL OF THE EVENTS OF WHICH YOU READ ABOUT IN THE SCROLL. HOWEVER, IT GOES FURTHER THAN THAT. IN THE TAPES CORNELIUS TALKS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF HIS WORLD, WHICH IS, IN REALITY, THE HISTORY OF OUR WORLD. YOU SEE, IF CORNELIUS WAS IN FACT FROM THE FUTURE, THEN HIS HISTORY IS ALSO OUR HISTORY. WHAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN THOUGH IS HOW THEIR ENTRY INTO OUR WORLD HAS AFFECTED THE HISTORY OF CORNELIUS' WORLD, OR OUR FUTURE. IT IS ALL VERY FASCINATING, AND CONFUSING ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

NEVERTHELESS, I WANT YOU TO BURN THIS LETTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, AS I HAVE ALREADY DONE YOURS. IT WOULD BE MOST UNFORTUNATE IF A MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL GUARD STUMBLED UPON ONE OF THESE LETTERS AND SUMMONED YOU TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF BEFORE THE APE COUNCIL. PLEASE TRUST ME ON THIS ODORA. BURN THIS LETTER AS SOON AS YOU READ IT AND NEVER WRITE ME ABOUT THIS TOPIC AGAIN. THE FICTION THAT GOD SENT CORNELIUS AND ZIRA IS TOO SACRED TO THE COUNCIL. IF THEY KNEW THAT THEY CAME AS REFUGEES INSTEAD OF MESSIAHS, BECAUSE OF WAR INSTEAD OF DIVINE INSPIRATION, I FEAR EVEN MORE DRASTIC CHANGES WOULD BE COMING TO APE CITY.

I MISS YOU VERY MUCH AND LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR NEXT LETTER. I AM LONELY OUT HERE ON THE EXPEDITION WITHOUT YOU TO TALK TO. WE PASSED THROUGH OLD RENO ABOUT A WEEK AGO AND NOW WE ARE CAMPED OUT HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT. I DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE, BUT ACCORDING TO MY MAPS OF THE OLD WORLD, WE ARE IN NEVADA. OTHER THAN THAT THERE IS NOTHING MUCH OUT HERE TO TELL ME WHERE WE ARE.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO KEEP UP YOUR FINE WORK AT THE LAB. YOU ARE DOING A WONDERFUL JOB IN MY ABSENCE. I HAVE TO GO NOW, BUT I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU SOON.

SINCERELY,

LUCIUS

Odora finished with the letter, folded it up, placed it back in its envelope and walked it over to the back of the lab, where there was a flame apparatus designed to help chimpanzee scientists with their experiments. She ignited the flame and held the envelope over the it. But before the flame took to the parchment, Odora heard an awful commotion outside the lab. There was screaming and shouting, sounding like there was a real emergency outside. She rushed to the door to look, and immediately fixated on the source of the commotion. The High Councilor was lying just outside in a pool of his own blood, clutching his wounded chest in absolute agony. She rushed to his side and the inner nurturer in her came out naturally.

"_Quick. Get a nurse!_" She shouted to a shell-shocked member of the Council Guard, who was still pondering over his failure to protect the High Councilor. Odora ripped off the sleeve to her traditional green cloak and used it to apply pressure to Leo's wound.

"_Leo. Leo! Look at me. Breathe. In and out. Deep breaths. Breathe. Stay with me. Help is on the way._" Odora at least knew enough about first aid to keep Leo from going into shock.

"_Th-thank you._" This was all that Leo could muster. As Odora was applying the pressure in her attempts to save the High Councilor, she saw that further down the street of the marketplace, a Council Guard was running up towards her and Leo with a nurse in tow. Once they reached the High Councilor, the nurse relieved Odora. Once relieved, Odora immediately asked the other Council Guard what had happened.

"_How did this happen?_" Odora wanted answers.

"_The High Councilor was making his daily visit to market when an assassin approached him from behind and stabbed him in the chest. We just didn't see him._" The Council Guard was almost apologetic for his failure of duty.

"_Where is the assassin?_" Odora asked.

"_He got away. We don't know where he is._" There was a sense of panic in the Council Guard's voice as he spoke.

Leo was lifted up on a gurney and rushed from the scene. Nobody there watching knew whether or not the High Councilor would live or die. His fate was now in the hands of the medical personnel that were now attending to him. As Odora stood by watching, back in the lab Lucius' letter to her fell harmlessly to the floor.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen:**

Marius was working late into the night when he finally heard the news. The High Councilor had been stabbed and was now in critical condition. Immediately he worked to set the machinery of the Ape Council in motion. He at once summoned a Council Rider to his chambers. He needed him to ride throughout Ape City, going to and from each Councilor's residence, calling them to Council for an emergency session. Marius penned the order and handed it to the Council Rider.

"_Time is of the essence. Start to the north and proceed through Ape City clockwise until you have summoned a quorum of the Council. Now go. Now!_" Marius ordered.

The rider then left Marius' chambers as the Council majority leader prepared his things before he too left for Council. He packed his bag and left, shutting the door behind him. The streets of Ape City were in total turmoil. Fear was gripping the citizens of Ape City. The panic of every ape in the city was palpable. The stabbings had been a persistent problem, but now the High Councilor was fighting for his life. Something had to be done to restore order. Marius thought that by convening an emergency session of the Ape Council and making the call to Caesar, the people of Ape City would at least know that their government was still functioning. He meant to go beyond symbolism however, as Marius hoped that he could get Caesar to suspend ape law in order to put humans in a state of lockdown until the storm had passed. Marius had no idea as to who the assassin was, but in his mind he was absolutely convinced that it must have been a human conspiracy to strike a blow to one of the most powerful officials in ape government. Marius, although sincere in his belief that he needed to calm the citizens of Ape City, was also a firm believer that one should never let a crisis go to waste. And this could be the perfect opportunity for him to gather the support he needed to finally strip humans of the last few rights that they had left. After this Council, if Marius' plan was ultimately successful, humans would have no rights left in Ape City.

Marius couldn't help but think through the situation. What could be the purpose behind this attack? Who was the assassin? And even more importantly, who hired the assassin? Did anybody hire the assassin, or was this the act of some lone wolf human? Whoever was behind the attack, once the Council was able to call Caesar, and if Caesar suspended ape law, then all humans, marked and unmarked alike, would be forcibly enslaved. Peace would then be restored, and the slaveholding aristocracy of Ape City, himself included, might even be able to turn a profit.

Marius was planning his pitch to the Ape Council. Needless to say, Milo and the chimps would scream dictator at the idea of suspending ape law. It was an unprecedented move. Only once had an Ape Council ever convened an emergency session for the purpose of calling Caesar. According to ape law, only Caesar himself could declare a state of emergency, thereby suspending ape law. In such a state of emergency, Caesar could act free from legal restraint, as there was no longer ape law to stop him. The only caveat was that a state of emergency was decreed, by the Great Lawgiver himself, to be a temporary solution. For one year only could a state of emergency be enacted by Caesar, and even he could not unbind that decree. And at the end of the state of emergency, when ape law returned, any decree made by Caesar was brought forth before a newly convened Ape Council, who could, if they wished, ratify the decree made by Caesar and make it binding law. However, if the Council did nothing, then the decrees and enactments of Caesar during the state of emergency would become null and void.

The one and only time the Ape Council had ever convened for an emergency session for the purpose of making a call to Caesar, the call was made, but Caesar XII, during the time of the Great Lawgiver, did not declare a state of emergency, stating that he would rather live in a state of emergency than a state of lawlessness. Marius absolutely believed that this time would be different, and also that this was his chance. Caesar XXII was a far cry from the Great Caesar XII. This Caesar could be bullied, persuaded, and manipulated. Marius could summon the votes for a call to Caesar, recommend to him that a state of emergency be declared, have Caesar punish the humans, and then convince the Council to ratify those anti-human decrees after the month was over. Then he would all but be assured Leo's spot as High Councilor. Besides, the old General would no doubt be in a mood to step down after such a horrifying ordeal, assuming of course he survives it in the first place. But of course, as his mind was racing over the political ramifications of this new turn of events, Marius had to keep a level head and be sure to not tip his hand as to his long term ambitions. For now, he needed to compose himself, get to Council, and get the votes necessary for the call to Caesar.

After the long walk through the winding roads of Ape City, Marius approached the Ape Council house. As was typical for when the Council convened, a crowd had begun to form around the area. But on this particular occasion for an emergency session, the feel of the scene was electric. Apes of all species had gathered to await the events of the newly convened Council. They knew, even if they didn't know why or how, that the Ape Council was at the heart of the government and was about to make a big decision. Caesar was still loved and adored by his subjects, but nobody expected him to act during a time like this, ever. This was a time for the Council to act, and the intelligent apes present, mainly the chimpanzees, knew that there was always the possibility that a call to Caesar could be made. And if it was in fact made, this Caesar, however unlikely, however unprecedented, might actually exercise emergency power.

The Councilors were beginning to arrive. As was custom, Marius met up with Milo prior to entering the Council house.

"_Milo._" Marius said, greeting the minority leader.

"_Marius._" Milo replied in acknowledgement.

"_Get your caucus together. I hope to open up Council shortly._" Marius was ready to begin.

And with that, Marius and Milo entered the Council, leaving the anticipating public curious, shutting the large oak doors behind them. Marius went to his assigned desk, made of stone in the old fashion, and specially reserved for the majority leader. Seated exactly opposite him, across the entire length of the vast room, was Milo, his foil, who was seated at his own assigned desk. There was now almost a quorum to conduct the business of the Council, as Councilors continued to trickle into the house. Finally, when Councilor Basil, of the human district, walked into the house, there was a quorum, and the Ape Council could conduct it's business. Marius pounded the gavel, and the Ape Council was once again in session.

"_Ape Councl is now in session. Before we conduct the business of Ape City, I think it should be acknowledged that the High Councilor, Leo, is not present. This session of the Ape Council has been convened for an emergency session as a result of the attempted assassination of the High Councilor. This body gives it's full support to our High Councilor, and wish him a full recovery."_Marius opened.

The Ape Councilors, to an ape, beat their chests in support of the High Councilor.

"_But in his absence, the business of Ape City must be conducted. There have been multiple reports of attacks made on several apes throughout the city. I have seen credible evidence linking these attacks to a human conspiracy._" Marius was lying through his teeth with that line. He had heard or seen absolutely zero evidence that humans were behind the attacks. But it was a lie that hopefully would serve his ends. Where he wasnt lying though, was in reporting on the attacks; just prior to opening up Council, Marius was presented with the news that several other apes had been stabbed at various points throughout the city. Although Marius genuinely cared about the welfare of the citizens of Ape City, he couldn't help but feel that he had been blessed with the news of these additional stabbings. They would lend credibility to his calling an emergency session and making the call for Caesar.

The Council was already beginning to get raucous as Marius was speaking. The chimps at Council knew where this debate was heading already and they didn't like it. They shouted for their champion, "_Milo! Milo!_" They called his name, although, at least for the time being, the minority leader held his tongue.

"_With much of the Ape Army out on expedition, valiantly fighting for the glory of Ape City, and with this crisis here at home, bold, decisive leadership is needed. The High Councilor is fighting for his life, leaving the Ape Council without it's first among equals. It is for this reason that I have called this emergency session. And it is for this purpose that I now move to have this Council call for Caesar!"_Marius crowed.

The Council erupted. The chimpanzees jumped up and down, screaming and shouting, beating their chests. With Milo continuing to remain seated, Basil rose to speak on behalf of the chimpanzee community, and indirectly on behalf of the humans in his district.

"_With all due respect, Councilor Marius. I sympathize with your position, but there is just not enough proof to show that this is in any way related to a human conspiracy. And furthermore, I would challenge you to show that we are in fact in an emergency. Yes, my heart goes out to the High Councilor, and I'm sure there is not an ape in this body who doesnt also feel the same way. But just because he has been stabbed does not mean that we need to take the drastic step of making the call to Caesar. It's just not necessary! I challenge your motion, and pray that it is not passed by this illustrious Council._" Basil responded, marking his first speech since being elected to Council in the last election.

The chimpanzees at Council applauded Basil's remarks. Some were still calling for Milo to speak, but he remained silent. The tide seemed to be shifting towards Basil and the chimpanzees. There just didn't appear to be enough momentum to carry such a drastic measure. Marius tried to counter Basil's remarks.

"_Councilor_ _Basil. Would you rather we wait until Ape City is overrun with humans? Shall we wait until Caesar himself is lying in his own blood. We cannot sit back and wait for the next attack before we act. And this is all the more crucial because Leo is gone. He is gone! Leo is gone and Caesar waits for us to act or to give him the power to act. We need to make the call to Caesar now before this happens again._" Marius needed to dispatch Basil's argument quickly.

The orangutans were behind Marius, along with some gorillas who felt that a call to Caesar would be a proper show of respect for the fallen High Councilor. Basil responded to this argument with gusto.

"_You would deliver us from the blade of the assassin and hand us over into the grip of the tyrant. There is nothing to suggest that our own police force is incapable to handle this crisis. Calling for Caesar is premature and potentially dangerous. I do not support it and I urge my fellow Councilors to vote against a measure that would give unprecedented power to any one ape._" For such a young Councilor, Basil had a way with oratory.

Basil was starting to win over many of the gorillas in attendance. He had the momentum and he felt he had the votes to defeat the call to Caesar. Sensing the opportunity to go in for the kill, Basil explicitly called out Milo to speak.

"_I yield the floor to the leader of my caucus, my good friend, Councilor Milo._" Basil said.

Milo scanned the room for a good while before finally rising, when he again gazed about the room.

"_My fellow apes. I do not have any prepared remarks. I did not plan to speak today. But I will say this though. As you all know, I opposed sending such a strong contingent of our Ape Army out on this expedition. I told you from this very seat that there would be a day when we would need our entire army to combat some threat to our safety and well being. Instead of marching in the opposite direction, marching in the name of "Ape City" and fighting for glory and other nonsense far away from home, they would be here, protecting us from these cowardly assassins. This Council voted for that expedition, and now we are all are having to pay the price. If our Ape Army were here under normal circumstances, I would answer with a loud no to the question of whether we should make the call to Caesar. But since our Ape Army is not here. And since we are all alone, defenseless. And since we are without a leader to guide us through the storm we now find ourselves in. I vote, with a heavy heart, in favor of making the call to Caesar._" Milo's comments were short and sweet, but cut through the Council like a knife.

And with that, the minority leader took his seat. His words took the wind out of the sails of those in his caucus who had heretofore been vehemently opposed to just such a measure. Now, with Milo on board, Basil and the other chimpanzees sat down, and made no more objections.

"_Debate on the measure has now ended. I put the measure up for a vote._" Marius called out.

The votes were being cast as the apes of Council placed either a white or black painted stone into the various baskets that were being passed around the room. A white stone stood for a yes vote, while a black stone stood for a no vote. Finally the baskets were all brought up to the desk of majority leader Marius, who then proceeded to count up the votes. And after several minutes, when all the votes were counted, Marius stood up to face the Council and announce the results.

"_By a vote of fifty three votes to forty seven, the motion is carried. Caesar shall be called._" Marius said. "_Dispatch a rider to the Royal Palace immediately._"


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Chapter Fifteen:**

The Councilors were growing restless, awaiting the next chapter of this new saga to unfold. The call had been made, and a rider sent to the Royal Palace to fetch Caesar himself. Now, for one rare fleeting moment, the Council was utterly powerless. Milo, Marius, and even the wounded Leo could do nothing now but watch and wait as unlimited power was handed over to Caesar himself, who could now choose to refuse such power or exercise it. The choice was completely his.

Marius sat quietly at his desk, waiting like everyone else for Caesar's entrance. These were strange times indeed. If Caesar were to indeed declare an emergency, then the race would be on to gain an audience with him as quickly as possible. The Royal Palace would be swarming with apes from all reaches of Ape City, attempting to exert whatever influence they could on the impressionable Caesar. Marius himself obviously hoped to win the race to Caesar's ear. Clearly, his main competition in that regard would be Milo, who he feared would now try to preach moderation on the young Caesar. Now was no time for moderation on the human issue. The threat to Ape City, as far as Marius was concerned, was absolutely real. And it should be dealt with swiftly and harshly. That meant stripping humans of their last remaining rights and privileges, monitoring them, enslaving them, and killing them if need be. But before any of that became necessary, Marius and the rest of the Council had to await Caesar's entrance.

Across the room sat Milo, who was also busy planning his next move. Should Caesar declare a state of emergency, he too had to be prepared to act quickly to counteract Marius. He knew as well as anybody, like Marius knew, that those with the real power in a possible state of emergency would be Caesar's advisers. He had to beat Marius in the race to Caesar, so that the humans would not be aggressively persecuted and driven out of Ape City, enslaved, or worse. Rather, those humans needed to be courted and given more power, and eventually the right to vote, so that Milo could complete his power play and assume majority leadership.

At that moment three loud knocks rang throughout the Council house halls. The sounds emanating from those knocks on the large oak doors were clearly the knocks of Caesar answering the Council's call. Caesar was here. The time for him to speak to the Council was at hand. The large oak doors swung open and four members of the Council Guard entered the room.

"_Illustrious members of this fine Council. Caesar has heard your call. He is here. May he enter?_" One of the Council Guards asked. This ritual had solemn formalities which must be followed.

"_In the High Councilors absence, I, Marius, majority leader of the Ape Council, speak for him. Caesar is welcome in this Council. He may enter._" Marius replied.

Upon which the four Council Guards surrounded Caesar, as he slowly made his way into the Council House. He walked down the central aisle of the Council house, nonverbally acknowledging many individual Councilors on his way to the rostrum where the High Councilor traditionally spoke. Upon his passing, Councilors would bow down to one knee in salute, and upon his passing by they would beat their chests in a second salute. Finally, Caesar made it to the rostrum, where he paused for a brief moment before speaking to the Council. Milo and Marius, almost simultaneously, stood up to applaud. Upon their doing so, the entire Council rose in applause. No doubt this was the first time since his coronation that Caesar ever received an ovation like this. He tried to hide it, but Caesar loved it. After quieting the room, Caesar spoke before the Council.

"_Thank you Councilors. Thank you Councilors Marius. Milo. These are dark times for our city. Our citizens are as we speak under attack from without and within. We do not know who the attackers are, or who they are taking their orders from. But we do know that they are efficient, organized, and swift. We also know that today they stabbed High Councilor Leo in the streets of the market. He now fights for his life and is being tended to by our finest nurses. Meanwhile, most of our Army is marching east out of Nevada and through the great Salt Lakes, on their way to establish our sovereignty abroad, and to secure for our city the very resources that will enable this city's long term survival. But for it's short term survival, Ape City is currently defenseless. It is for this reason that the Council has called me here today. And I acknowledge the significance of such a call. Not since Caesar XII has this body made the call to Caesar, and never before has a Caesar declared such a state of emergency. But no Caesar has had to face the threat we now face without an army. No Caesar has had to face what we now face without a High Councilor. Even during the Third Day of Fire, this city was not completely defenseless in the face of such a threat. The threat from without is easy to defend. It is the threat from within that kills you. Without the army here to suppress the threat we now face, I fear our police force alone will not be sufficient to protect us. Because of this, this Council made the call. Well I am here today because I heard the call, and it is with a heavy heart and the utmost recognition of the heavy burden I now bear, that I officially declare a state of emergency in Ape City. Starting at noon tomorrow and ending at noon one year from now, in the year 3171, the Ape Council is hereby dissolved, to be reconvened at the end of that said year in special session. My fellow apes, we will pass this test. We will emerge from this crisis united and strong. May God always watch over us and keep us safe."_

And with that, Caesar stood down from the rostrum. The room broke out into applause for Caesar, who was once again surrounded by the Council Guard. They proceeded to escort him down the aisle once more, back to the large oak doors from which he had come. Before Caesar and his guards left the Council house, he turned back to face the Council one final time. All of the Councilors were on their feet, beating their chests in a last salute. Caesar beat his chest back, and left, the large wooden doors shutting behind him.

Marius stood up from his desk once more to address the Council. Even he, knowing full well the possibility, however remote, that Caesar would declare a state of emergency, was in a state of shock. The magnitude of what they had all just seen had struck a chord with all the apes in attendance. They had just seen history in the making. And nobody knew exactly what the next year would have in store for them.

"_The emergency session of the Ape Council is now over._"


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen:**

The march was clearly taking its toll on the apes in Lucius' expedition. They had been on the move for eight weeks now and the overland march through northern Nevada had taken dealt quite the beating. Lucius himself could hardly imagine that for as grueling as the journey had been so far, they had not even completed a third of their voyage. And so they continued to march. Fortunately, however, they had made it through Nevada and into the old human city of the Salt Lake, where they had made camp for the night.

Lucius was walking among the men, lost in the fog of his own thoughts. He thought of Odora, and the lab, and of all the things that he held dear. He longed to be home where he could relax and work and mind his own business. But now he had been called upon to be some great leader of apes, a job for which he knew he was ill suited.

Suddenly Lucius' attention was drawn to some of the apes in his camp. The sound of shock and despair and bouts of emotion was absolutely unmistakable. Lucius went over to find out what the source of the commotion was.

"_What is it?_" He asked simply.

"_Sir._" A soldier gorilla responded. "_The High Councilor's been stabbed. This report doesn't say what has become of him. It just says that he's been stabbed and is in critical condition. The High Council made the call to Caesar. He answered the call. And a state of emergency has been declared. That's all it says._"

Lucius was floored. This whole expedition was Leo's brainchild. His incapacity, or even worse his death, would put the entire campaign in jeopardy. He needed to summon his aides.

"_Otto! Maurice! Meet with me now!_" Lucius shouted.

In an instant, the bureaucrat orangutan and the soldier gorilla emerged from the shadowy darkness and reported for duty.

"_Yes sir._" Otto reported.

"_Sir._" Maurice said.

"_Come. Into my quarters._" Lucius said as he waved the two of them into his private quarters. Lucius sat down.

"Please gentlemen, I'm no general. No need for such formalities. Just have a seat. We need to talk."

"_Sir?_" Otto replied. The old general didn't understand. After a very long pause. Lucius finally understood what they had been waiting on.

"_At ease?_" Lucius said, hoping that this would allow his two aides to finally relax in his presence. And as he said this, they both sat down.

"_I don't know if you have heard the reports from Ape City. But I have been made aware of the fact that our High Councilor has been stabbed. The fact that he may be dead does not escape me. I now question the need for this expedition to go forward. Any state of emergency in Ape City requires the Ape Army. And so I would suggest we abort this expedition immediately and return home to serve the High Council in whatever manner best serves it._"

The three looked at each other, reflecting on the words that they had just heard, and a silence had fallen upon the three. None knew what to do, or what to say. The decision was Lucius', and his alone. Only Maurice dared to speak his true feelings.

"_With all due respect sir. I was the closest to Leo. I knew him. I spoke with him. I was with him day after day after day. And he told me, on more than one occasion, that this expedition was to be his legacy. He wanted this expedition to be his greatest accomplishment in all his years of public service. He wanted this expedition to succeed so badly. But not merely to establish his own personal legacy. No, he wanted this expedition to be a monument to the greatness of Ape City. To shine a beacon of light on all that we've accomplished since we were led from bondage. Whether or not future generations know the where or the when or the why of where we came from, Leo wants all to know, until the end of time, the greatness of Ape City. That is why we were sent here. To put a stamp on the world that says yes we were here, and here not to conquer the world but to conquer fear. To conquer the unknown. That is why we are here. And that is why we must march on, no matter what happens, until we reach the ends of the earth. And that is why I vote that we keep moving._" Maurice was clearly emotional by the time he finished his miniature speech.

"_And you Otto?_" Lucius asked.

"_I go._" Otto looked over at Maurice briefly, and then back over to Lucius. "_I go wherever you tell me to go. Leo ordered me to serve you and be your military aide during this expedition. Whatever you ask, I will serve._" Otto, ever the soldier, said proudly. "_That's the best way I know to honor Leo's legacy._"

Lucius got up from his chair and paced back and forth throughout the tent, wondering to himself what he should do. He hadn't exactly been spot on with his military decisions up to this point. He had made a potentially devastating mistake back in Sacramento when he disregarded Otto's military advice. His arrogance had almost cost the lives of himself, Otto, and the countless other apes now under his command. So now he would not double down on that mistake. He would take the advice of his advisers.

"_Very well. We'll keep going. Otto, it's nearly dawn, ready the apes and let's get out of the city of the Salt Lakes._" Lucius said as he turned away, signaling to Otto and Maurice that the meeting was adjourned.

Lucius went over to put on the light armor that Otto had given him while on horseback. He hated putting on the armor, as it weighed him down considerably, making it almost impossible to move very quickly while on foot. And in this new line of work Lucius had now found himself in, the ability to move and move quickly was at a high premium.

And then suddenly a knife was at Lucius' throat.

"_I promise you I mean you no harm. But I must deliver you to meet my master. Turn around, slowly._"

Lucius slowly, with his arms raised, turned around to face his assailant. It was a woman.

"_Oh my. You're..._" Lucius tried to speak.

"_Keep your voice down._" The woman hushed him.

"_You're…you're a woman._" Lucius was stunned.

"_We are not enemies. Follow me. Now._" She was cold, emotionless.

"_Why?_" Lucius was trying to play catch up mentally.

"_Because I have what you're looking for._" She said.

"_And what would that be?_" He asked.

The woman stared in cold silence.

"_I have an entire army behind me. All I have to do is say the word and they'll be in here for you._" Lucius couldn't fight his fear, but at the same time, on some level, he believed this woman when she said that she was not a threat.

"_You can do whatever you want. But I can tell you that we are not enemies. Now follow me._" The woman then walked to the back of the tent, where she lifted back a wooden manhole cover that concealed an underground passageway hidden beneath what appeared to be sand.

"_Wow._" Lucius wondered out loud, mad at himself that he never noticed such an obvious passageway.

"_Now jump._" She commanded. She held open the cover to this manhole, obviously a passageway into one of the old sewers of this ruined city.

She would remain behind momentarily to conceal the entrance. Lucius turned back, glanced at the woman, looked at the entryway of his tent, perhaps considering raising the alarm and sending his men to search and destroy whatever was waiting for him in the darkness below. But instead, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and jumped down into the darkness just as the woman had commanded.


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Chapter Seventeen:**

The water was freezing. Fear quickly struck into Lucius' heart as he struggled to breathe. He was in over his head, under water and alone, trying desperately to find something to grasp onto. But again and again he came up empty. He couldn't swim, and genuinely thought this might be the end, about as inglorious a way to die as he could possibly imagine; but just as he was about to give up all hope, a hand reached down into the dark abyss and pulled him up above water.

Lucius came back up to the surface and coughed up some water, trying his best to catch his breath, but it was useless. His body was working overtime to provide enough oxygen. Meanwhile, his lungs were pumping out the water that didn't belong.

As his eyesight returned to him, Lucius could hardly see a thing aside from his rescuer, who was yet another man. There was no sight of the woman Lucius had just been speaking with, but at that precise moment he could not have cared less, as he simply wanted to reach dry land.

Finally, Lucius was dragged to the side of the sewer, where the man checked to make sure he was all right.

"_Are you ok?_" The human male asked.

"_Yes. I believe so._" Lucius responded after coughing up the last of the water in his lungs. "_Where are we?_"

"_Quick. There is no time. Just follow her. And hurry._" The man said, pointing over to the woman who had just moments before held a knife to Lucius' throat and had him almost jump down to his death.

"_Come. This way!_" The woman shouted as she walked off into the darkness. Lucius' mind was racing, and lost, all at the same time. He didn't know what to think. Intelligent humans? Down here in the sewers? Random sewers far outside Ape City? It was far too much for him to digest. But he didn't have the time to digest it; he needed to move before she disappeared entirely and left him in this darkness.

And so Lucius chased after her, hoping for the best. He wondered why she wanted him down here. Accepting the proposition that there were highly intelligent, civilized humans in the world, the question remained as to why they would reach out to him with open arms like this. It would appear to be much more logical for the woman to have slit his throat when she had the chance. The humans in and around the Forbidden City had constantly wanted to see Ape City destroyed. Twice, the humans from the Forbidden City attempted to invade Ape City, and were twice the apes had turned them away, if only by the skin of their teeth and due in large part to the bravery of the great Caesar himself and Leo, years after that. As a scientist, Lucius could not contain his excitement. But as an ape and as a citizen of Ape City, he was terrified.

And he was now terrified for a new reason altogether. He was alone in the dark, and lost.

"_Hello?!_" Lucius shouted out into the dark passageway in front of him. The woman was gone.

"_Can anybody hear me?_" Lucius asked again, this time behind him, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man who saved his life earlier. But he too was gone. Lucius was lost. This sewer system was constructed like a labyrinth. One turn after another, and unfortunately for Lucius, he had failed to notice his steps as he tried his best to keep up with the woman, making retracing his steps impossible. And so, being lost, Lucius just walked straight ahead, hoping to either reach the woman or make his way out of the sewers all by himself. These were his only options at this point. With no food, no water, no direction, and no guarantees that he was in fact not in hostile territory, his prospects were looking pretty dim. Lucius passed tunnel after tunnel, as his own tunnel veered ever so slightly to the left into a dark nothingness. With no light to guide him, Lucius just kept on walking.

Until suddenly the tunnels opened up before him, and then there was light. Lucius was no longer in a tunnel, but rather a vast and empty room, into which all of the other sewer tunnels apparently emptied. The tunnels had apparently been lined with strings of light bulbs, which in this room only gave a vast amount of illumination. The question as to whether there were intelligent humans out in the world was now solved; there most definitely were.

"_Stop._" Lucius recognized the woman's voice, but he could still not see her.

"_Where am I?_" Lucius asked in return.

"_Lucius._" A man shouted out.

At first Lucius could not make out who was speaking. But suddenly it became unmistakable, as a new set of lights were lit, lighting up this part of the sewers completely. Inside the room were dozens of humans, some wearing nothing more than rags, some half naked, and some, presumably the warriors of this human tribe, with red face paint on. Lucius spotted them immediately from the battle in Sacramento. These humans clearly had some connection to the humans there in that destroyed old city. Perhaps they were the same. Perhaps the expedition was being followed. Or maybe perhaps this was some sort of allied human city, separate but the same simultaneously. There was also a separate class of humans present, a higher ranking class, and they stood up on the platform from where the man had spoken Lucius' name. These humans were fully clothed from their heads down to their toes, their heads covered in some sort of cap, and all of them wearing distinctly covered vests. Lucius spoke back.

"_Y-yes. What do you want? How do you know my name? Where am I?!_" He answered, shouting back at the man.

"_Hello Lucius. You are in the sewers of the ruins of Salt Lake City. It was one of the cities of our forefathers, and it's sewers are now currently being used by the Fellowship as a tunnel to our home. I know your name because I can hear your thoughts. And what I want is to take you to our Leader." _The man spoke simply and bluntly. This man wore a green vest and spoke quite articulately, much unlike any human Lucius had ever encountered before. He spoke differently than even the woman or the man whom he had just encountered moments earlier.

"_I'm sorry. I am the leader of an ape expedition sent with the full authority of the Ape Council to…" Lucius was cut off. _He had an army waiting on him and probably looking for him by now. Lucius wanted to stall, or do something to buy himself enough time to be rescued. But at the same time he couldn't let go of the woman's words earlier in his tent. She was a friend? Presumably she spoke for this whole human community. If they truly wished him harm, then what would they be doing here toying with him? They could have just killed him by now if they truly wished to harm him.

"_Your Ape Council has no authority here. Neither does your Ape Army. They have yet to notice your absence, and by the time they do, we will be gone. But I will not force you. Will you be taken to our Leader?" _The man asked again.

Lucius really had only two options here. He could either decline to go with this man, and assuming he was truly allowed to leave in peace, rejoin the expedition and then continue from there, either to march further east, retreat back home, or search the sewers. Or, he could go with these humans, and meet their leader. As the head of the expedition, and with the objective given straight from High Councilor himself to establish diplomatic relations with both ape, and human, settlements, Lucius had a duty to go and meet the leader of this band of humans. And although he was full of fear and apprehension, it was of what he might find, not for his safety.

"_I will go with you._" Lucius answered.

"_Good. Follow Delrina. She will lead you to the conduit. Goodbye Lucius." _The man said, as he turned away and left the room.

"_This way Lucius._" The woman said as she took him by the arm. She took him off to a side tunnel, which led to some stairs. They went down the flight of stairs, descending further and further underground.

"_Where are you taking me?_" Lucius asked.

"_Many generations ago, our forefathers built a series of underground trains which shuttled back and forth from the various cities. Some of the train tunnels existed in the old times, and some were built after the fallout. As you can no doubt imagine, it has not been easy maintaining these tracks. They are the key means of communication and transportation between our home in the east and the ruins of the old world. They are all we have, and once they are gone, we will be cut off from your world._" Delrina tried to explain. "_But I don't have much time. Our Leader will explain everything to you._"

So much information so fast. They were nearing the bottom of the stairs now, and Lucius didn't know where to begin. He was running out to time to find out what he needed to know.

"_Our world? What do you mean? Ape City?_" Lucius needed to know how they knew about Ape City, and more importantly, how much they knew about Ape City.

"_If that's what your people call it. We once called it San Francisco. And after the fallout our Leader was called upon to lead us elsewhere. We do not represent the humans of San Francisco any longer Lucius, and we haven't had a presence there for more than a thousand years. But we are getting close now; our leader will answer any further questions that you have._" They had finally approached the old metal train. Despite the fact that this train was from the pre-war era and was obviously over a thousand years old, it was surprisingly in working condition. Clearly, the humans of this civilization retained their knowledge of science and technology. They must have engineers readily available to service the train, Lucius thought. Delrina motioned to Lucius that the time had come for him to enter the train, and as she did the doors opened. Lucius did as he was told, entering the train before turning around immediately to try and get a few more answers to some final questions.

"_Will you be coming with me? How far is the trip? Who is your leader?_" Lucius asked, frantically trying to get his answers before the doors closed and the train took him to some remote location.

"_Everything will be fine Lucius. You are going to New York._" Delrina calmly responded.

"_New York? Where is that? I don't know where you're taking me! Who is your leader?!_" Lucius needed his answers. He was hearing the loud roaring of the train engine roaring into action. Soon the door would seal him off from this world.

"_New York is our home. Don't worry Lucius. Our Leader will explain everything._" Delrina answered.

These weren't the answers Lucius was looking for. Just more of the same. More of the same old, tired, vague answers that he was becoming accustomed to getting by now.

"_And you still haven't told me who that is. I demand to know the name of your leader!_" Lucius needed the answer to this final question. The doors to the train were beginning to close and the train was just seconds away from heading off to the east and to New York. Finally, at the last second, Delrina gave him the answer he had so desperately been seeking.

"_His name is Mendez._"

And with that, the doors to the train slid shut.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Chapter Eighteen:**

Caesar had left the Council House and was heading back to the Palace. He had never before felt so powerful in his young life. He had been vested with the supreme authority, and for the next year, no force in Ape City could stop him from enacting any legislation or from exercising any executive action. He and his entourage were passing the apes that had assembled to see their Caesar after such a momentous event. His appearances had been becoming more and more seldom, and with the power of the Caesars dwindling over successive generations, he had less reason to come out and make appearances. But the citizens of Ape City knew that he was to be revered, even if they didn't know exactly why. The apes outside the Council House and surrounding the road back to the palace were beating their chests in righteous salute, not yet knowing the result of the events of the emergency session. The more educated chimpanzees in the area waited for the real drama. They waited for when the young gorilla scribe would emerge from behind the Council House doors to post the news. He had taken longer than usual on this particular day, but he finally came out to post his tablet next to the Council doors.

CALL TO CAESAR MADE – STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED – COUNCIL DISSOLVED!

Audible gasps ensued. The apes in attendance looked at each other in total shock. Even those who thought that this was a very real possibility couldn't help but shake their disbelief. A state of emergency? This was completely unprecedented. Caesar with absolute power for an entire year, with no Ape Council? Suddenly, Caesar became an imposing figure, not just a figurehead.

Milo had left the emergency session just prior to Caesar's speech and Marius' closing remarks. He knew better than most the power of patronage and was determined to beat Marius to Caesar. He was working his way through the crowd in order to cut off Caesar's entourage, so that he may be the first to gain an audience with the new supreme authority. But he was not the only one who knew how to play this game. Although Milo was the first to make it out of the Council House, Marius was no novice to power politics. He had had the Council Guard arrange a path directly to the Royal Palace, where he would be free to push for stronger laws against the humans in Ape City. All that stood in Marius's way now were the throngs of apes now assembled outside of the Council House; if he could just get to the Royal Palace. For the time being, Caesar was getting away from Milo. And if Milo didn't act quickly, Caesar would be lost to Marius and the conservatives forever. But luckily, for Milo at least, he too had an ace up his sleeve. He had had some of his ape supporters come out to obstruct the road to the Royal Palace with several demonstrators, who were told to protest the special session, the Call to Caesar, and the state of emergency. Milo knew it would be quashed with little trouble. Of course he knew it would be quashed. But as long as it served his true purpose, as long as it slowed down Caesar's entourage just enough, he may have the time he needed to catch up to him before he reached the Royal Palace.

Up ahead, Caesar was about three hundred yards away from the outer gate of the Royal Palace. Another three hundred yards, and Marius would win the race. The moment of truth was at hand, as Milo's planted demonstrators were but fifty yards away from Caesar's carriage, which was surrounded by Council Guards.

"_NO ABSOLUTE POWER! POWER CORRUPTS! GIVE THE POWER BACK! BRING BACK THE COUNCIL!_" Shouted the mob of demonstrators. Their demonstration was peaceful at first, but it apparently made no impact on Caesar's entourage.

"_TOO MUCH POWER FOR ONE APE! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! GIVE APE CITY BACK TO THE PEOPLE! TYRANT!_" When their verbal shouting failed to hit the mark, they were forced to resort to violence. They began to throw bottles at Caesar and his surrounding Council Guards. This was too much for them. The demonstrators had to be dealt with. Caesar's carriage stopped in the middle of the road and the Council Guard's gladly did their work. They fired several warning shots into the air. The immediate effect was quite predictable, as the crowd of demonstrators quickly dispersed without harm done to anybody.

Marius had finally made it to the Royal Palace and was awaiting Caesar's return. As he paced along the palace, he turned to the window to try and get a glimpse of what was taking him so long. As he peered out onto the road ahead, he heard the warning shots being fired and saw the demonstrators scurry away into the camouflage of the crowd. But what the Council Guards didn't see, at least at first, was a lone shrouded figure approach the side of the Royal carriage with total stealth.

"_DEATH TO TYRANTS!_" The figure shouted as he tossed a long spear through the outer fabric of the carriage and out the other side, just narrowly missing the head of Caesar himself. At this, all of the Council Guards emerged at once to take down the assailant, whom they immediately unshrouded. They soon discovered, to their horror, that the would-be assassin was in fact an ape. The Council Guards were stunned, as was Caesar himself, who could hardly believe that he had just nearly just lost his life at the hands of a fellow ape. Ape shall not kill ape was once again the supreme law of the land, and had been for some time, and this was a devastating violation. This, without a doubt, was unheard of. An ape attempting to assassinate another ape in public, in broad daylight; and not just another ape, but Caesar himself, now cloaked with absolute power. The crowd was stunned, not for the first time on this day. But a voice rang out of the silence.

"_Stop! Stop! Let me through. Apprehend that ape and secure the perimeter. We must get Caesar out of here!_" An ape shouted as he approached Caesar's carriage.

It was Milo. He had won the race after all as it turned out, as he rushed to Caesar's carriage, where he immediate sat beside the Supreme Ruler.

"_Are you all right Your Majesty?_" Milo asked.

"_Yes. Yes I'll be fine. He missed. Let's just get me out of here. Guard! Let's move._" Caesar ordered.

The carriage jerked forward as a few of the Council Guards stayed behind to secure the prisoner. Marius, seeing that Milo had made his way into Caesar's carriage, threw himself into a furious anger. He rushed out of the Palace Hall and towards the main gate of the Palace.

"_Go. Secure the gate! Secure Caesar!_" Marius shouted to the two Council Guards who were watching over him. They did as they were told and rushed to the main gate to prepare for Caesar's carriage. Marius had lost the initial race to Caesar, but perhaps all was not lost. If he could reason with him, then maybe he could at the end of the day win the argument. Obviously, if what he had seen from the Royal Hall window was accurate, and he was confident that it was, then his hopes to push through stricter anti-human reforms were badly damaged. If only it had been a human would-be assassin! That would have sealed the deal in favor of driving the humans out of Ape City once and for all, and Marius was drooling at the prospects of ridding ape society of humans for good. They brought nothing but death and disease and destruction; they made Ape City weak and disgusting, a blight on the illustrious legacy of apekind. Ape City should have been left to the apes back in Caesar's time, and what was left of the Forbidden City should have been left to the filthy humans. Marius thought of Milo, and how much he loved the humans, coddled them, and fought for them. They were weak, and in their turn made him weak. And now Milo himself was trying to make Ape City weak. He had to be stopped.

Caesar's carriage passed through the Palace gates, and upon stopping the Council Guards, along with Milo, rushed him inside the compound with great haste. Finally, Caesar was whisked into his private quarters, where Marius was waiting for him already, and with Milo following right behind.

"_Your majesty. We need to talk. Now._" Marius started.

"_Caesar needs to rest. Perhaps you were too busy to see, but an attempt has been made on Caesar's life. You will have your time to speak with him later._" Milo rebuffed him.

"_There is no time to lose. I need to speak to Caesar about matters of state. And I need to do so now._" Marius pleaded.

"_You will speak to Caesar when and if he allows you to do so. Now please leave Caesar be Marius. He will speak with you later._" Milo was trying his best to get Marius out of Caesar's quarter as soon as he could.

"_Milo please. I am more than capable of hearing this out. Marius, what is it?_" Caesar interrupted.

"_I need to speak with you about the latest turn of events your majesty. I have a plan. A proposal if you will, as to how to proceed._" Marius was overjoyed with being able to speak to Caesar.

"_And how would that be Marius?_" Asked Caesar.

"_We need to pass another round of human reforms. They are dangerous, and I have solid proof confirming that they are behind the waves of stabbings._" Marius said, getting straight to the point before he was interrupted again.

"_Your majesty._" Milo said, quick to interject. "_Marius has no proof. I have repeatedly requested that Marius provide his 'proof' at Council and he has repeatedly failed to do so. The simple fact of the matter is that he has no proof. Humans are not the issue here Caesar. Your attacker was, after all, not a human, wasn't he? Rather, he was a gorilla. A gorilla! No, what is needed at this time are cooler heads. Cooler heads must prevail! We must let the dust settle on today's violence. Now is not a time for rash action. Humans do not need laws attacking them, but rather they need laws protecting them. Ape City is up in arms after the stabbing of High Councilor Leo, and now with this declaration of a state of emergency, I'm afraid the apes of the city will be screaming for the blood of the humans. The people are afraid Caesar, and they need you to lead, not persecute._" Milo was trying his best to control the tempo of the discussion.

"_Your majesty. The apes DESERVE the blood of the humans. They are most definitely behind the stabbings and must be controlled. It's self evident! At the very very least, we need stronger laws in place to control the humans. Push for human enslavement, at least temporarily, until we can restore the peace at the end of the emergency. Do this Caesar, Ape City begs you!_" Marius had to resort to his plan B, as he could already tell which way Caesar was leaning.

"_Caesar, you must..._" Milo said, once again trying to cut off Marius.

"_I must do NOTHING! I am Caesar. Milo, Marius, I have heard you both. And I have decided on a course of action. The assassin out there was an ape Marius, not a human. I see no reason why harsher laws are necessary. The current laws on the books are more than adequate to control the humans. No, no. No. I'm sorry Marius, but I must protect the humans from future ape violence. I will not react like a tyrant would. The humans need my help, and so I will help them." _Caesar appeared to be set in his own mind as to what course of action he was going to take._  
_

_"But Caesar..." _Marius was desperate for Caesar to change his mind.

_"I'm sorry my friend. But I have made up my mind. Now please, leave us." _Caesar said, as he pointed for the exit.

Marius was powerless to change Caesar's mind. Milo had bested him in beautiful, masterful fashion, with the skill and care of a master chess player. He had Caesar's favor now, and together they would be sure to toss aside the Human Reforms, as well as the Human Prohibitum, and then pass new laws giving all humans in Ape City full legal recognition and protection. Marius would be left to lick his wounds, in the hope that maybe his star would be ascendant with Caesar. He had never invested the time, as Milo had, in Caesar's Court. He had spent most of his political capital with High Councilor Leo, and in return was the most dominant figure at Ape Council, and thus Ape City. But now the Ape Council was no more, and Marius, the great majority leader at Council, was now powerless.


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen:

Otto was preparing the apes under his command and provisioning the horses. The expedition was in fine shape, and was set to reach Wyoming in a few days time.

"_How are we looking Otto?_" Maurice asked, catching up to Otto after packing up his tent and discussing the state of the expedition with some of the diplomats. Maurice tried to ensure that, as often as time and circumstances would permit, the diplomats that he oversaw were always prepared for the task at hand.

"_The sun is about to come up. Caesar asked me to ready the apes for the march into Wyoming. Your apes ready to roll?_" Otto asked of Maurice.

"_Yes sir. We have been ready; we assumed your apes needed some time to get ready. What are we waiting on?_" Maurice asked back.

"_Nothing. I thought you needed some extra time to get your diplomats provisioned and ready to go. So we are ready to march?_" Otto was beginning to understand that apparently they had both been waiting on the other, when both were ready to go.

"_Yes sir. Waiting for the order._" Replied Maurice.

"_Sounds great. Then I'll go get Lucius and inform him that the expedition is ready to march._" Otto said in return,

Otto left the infantry division he had been prepping and headed for Lucius' tent. It had been over an hour since he last spoke with Lucius, and he had begun to be more than just a little curious as to what he had been doing since then. As he approached the tent, the flaps of the tent which made up the door to the tent had started to blow in the breeze. Before Otto had fully made it to Lucius' tent, a full gust of wind blew both flaps wide open, opening up the inside of Lucius' tent for all to see. What he saw caused Otto's heart to almost stop as he dropped the gear he had been carrying and galloped on all fours into Lucius' tent. Lucius was missing!

Otto made his way inside Lucius' tent only to find it completely empty. There was no sign of him anywhere. All of his gear and personal effects were still there, however, leading Otto to believe that Lucius had not deserted the expedition. However he did not see any signs of a struggle, suggesting that there were no altercations of any kind. Otto was dumbfounded.

"_Maurice. Lucius' tent! Get over here now!_" Otto called out.

Much like Otto had, Maurice rushed over to the tent on all fours and with full speed. In the blink of an eye, he was beside Otto and inside the tent.

"_What's the matter?_" Maurice asked, only slightly out of breath.

"_Lucius is not here. That's what the matter! Has he said anything to you?_" Otto needed answers.

"_No, sir._" Maurice replied.

"_Do you know where he is?_" Otto asked, wanting a bottom line answer.

"_No sir._" Said Maurice.

"_Well he isn't here. Rider!_" Otto called out for one of the Ape Army messengers.

In perfect obedience, a rider galloped over on horseback, dismounted, entered the tent and awaited his orders.

"_Yes sir._" The rider said, awaiting orders.

"_Rider. You are to make your way through the ranks. I want you to find every single company commander and find out if they know where Lucius is. And keep it quiet! I don't want the apes to think anything wrong. Now go._" Otto ordered.

"_Yes sir._" The rider complied. He then left Lucius' tent, got back on his horse, and rode off to carry out his orders.

Otto continued to survey the area, looking for any clues as to Lucius' whereabouts. He sniffed the clothes, observed a half eaten orange. He knew he was missing something, but what? Apes don't just disappear. Much less such high profile apes. What was he missing? There weren't even any footprints in the area to offer a starting point for an investigation. It was as if someone just came down from the heavens, snatched up Lucius, and covered up his tracks in the process. Otto thought about this for a moment. Maybe not somebody from the heavens, but what about someone from the abyss down below? He immediately turned his attention down below him, looking for any clues there. He kicked the sand and dirt beneath him, desperately hoping to uncover a hidden tunnel or passageway, just like the one the humans had used during the skirmish in Sacramento. Otto was growing more confident, and also more afraid, that he was about to find what he was looking for. And it didn't take him long to find it either. Otto, while sweeping his foot over the floor of Lucius' tent, swept away just enough dirt from the area to reveal a part of a manhole cover. There it was, secured firmly to the ground but plainly visible to the naked eye. Otto knew in an instant what had happened, and also what needed to be done. He turned over to Maurice, and made no secret of his next move.

"_I'm going in after him. If I don't come back in twenty-four hours, then I want you to head the expedition and march the apes back to Ape City. You are to abort the mission, and head home. Do you understand me?_" Otto wanted to make sure that there was a proper command structure in place should he never again return to the surface.

"_Yes sir, but, but I insist you not go down there alone. Please, take some soldiers with you._" Maurice, in his turn, didn't want to have to send in a rescue team after the rescue team.

"_No. It could be much too dangerous. I'll go alone._" Otto said, perhaps with a slight touch of bravado.

"_If you won't take any gorillas with you, then I am going to order some of my diplomats accompany you._" Maurice said defiantly. "_And that is NOT up for debate. What will it be Otto?_"

Otto stared straight into Maurice's eyes, thinking over the situation for a good moment.

"_Fine! Koba! Veska! Front and center!_" Otto yelled, barking out orders.

In a matter of seconds, two fully armed gorilla infantry apes came inside the tent and were ready for further instructions from Otto.

"_Yes sir._" Veska said.

"_Yes sir._" Koba said.

"_We have a job to do. Lucius has gone missing and I have reason to believe that he may have been abducted and taken down below into the sewers beneath this old city. You are to accompany me as I go down to look for him. Whatever happens, you are to stay with me unless told otherwise, understood?_" Otto said to the two soldiers.

"_Yes sir._" Answered Veska.

"_Yes sir._"Answered Koba.

"_Good. Now go._" Ordered Otto.

And with that, Koba and Veska dropped down below into the sewers.

"_Remember, twenty four hours. Got it?_" Otto needed to remind Maurice of his standing order one final time.

"_Got it._" Maurice said in the affirmative.

Otto then dropped down into the manhole. The search for Lucius was on.


	21. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty:

Otto, Koba, and Veska dropped down into the water below. Immediately upon hitting the water, Otto quickly swam in a direct line to the walkway on the near side of the sewer. As soon as he was safely across, he called out to his apes.

"_Koba! Veska! Swim to my voice. There is a ladder and a walkway right here. Just swim here to me._" Otto ordered.

They did as they were told, and in a neat, quick, orderly fashion, they were safely out of the water.

"Where are we sir?" Asked Koba.

"_I don't know. Just follow me. And keep your eyes open._" Otto ordered, again.

Otto then began to lead his apes through the dark tunnels of the sewers. The tunnels were nearly pitch dark, aside from the small amount of light that was now creeping in from one manhole above. And because of the water, all of the materials for making a torch were now useless. But out of the corner of his eye, Otto was able to make out what he perceived to be candlelight. And so he made his way towards it.

"_Keep an eye out. There may be humans down here._" Otto said, alerting Koba and Veska.

A little behind Otto, Koba and Veska whispered to themselves.

"_What are we going to do if we find any humans?_" Asked Veska.

"_What do you think?_" Koba replied sarcastically.

"_Have you ever killed a human before?_" Veska asked, with a bit of fear in his voice.

"_Yes. You?_" Koba replied calmly.

"Never. What happened?" Veska needed to satisfy his curiosity.

"_I was with a raid out just outside of Ape City once. Couple of human herds were concentrating just outside the city and we went in to break it up._" Koba said without the slightest bit of emotion in his voice.

Veska just thought about what he had heard for a moment, and for a second he was about to give a response, but then gave up on the thought. He was wise enough to understand that he would never be able to understand how Koba must have felt after taking another life.

The three apes were making their way around one of the many curves that this tunnel had to offer. The candlelight was getting closer now. Otto could clearly make out the shadows of what appeared to be humans at the end of the tunnel.

"_Stop._" Otto ordered.

Koba and Veska stopped on a dime, awaiting further instructions. Otto was not about to risk his life and the lives of the apes under his command by breaking military discipline and just popping out from behind the corner and attempting surprise, hoping for the best. However, he instinctively knew the advantage which the element of surprise bestowed on him and his apes, and that was not an advantage to be freely given up. Finally, all of these options assumed the inevitability of violence. Otto didn't know the intentions of the humans down in these sewers, and so perhaps violence was not even going to be necessary, but if they were anything like the humans he had previously encountered, then violence would be the best way to go. All of these thoughts raced through Otto's mind as he planned his next move.

"_Ready your weapons._" Otto whispered.

Veska and Koba pulled out their rifles from their protective casings. These casings served the purpose of keeping their rifles clean, and in this particular case safe from water. Fortunately, Veska and Koba had failed to remove their rifles from their casings during the skirmish in Sacramento, and so they had been protected from the sewer water earlier. Now ready for hostilities, Koba and Veska again waited.

Otto was convinced of what his course of action was inevitably going to be, but he wanted to investigate just a bit further to try and see if he could obtain any valuable intelligence on who he was dealing with.

"_Stay here._" Otto again whispered.

And with that, Otto crept forward, inch by inch, until he was just outside the line of sight from the people on the other side of the tunnel. He tried his best to make out what they were saying, but was only able to hear a little bit of the conversation.

"_How long is the trip to New York?_" One of them asked another.

"_Using the Bullet Rail, he will be there in an hour._" The other one replied.

"_Do you think Mendez will be able to get through to him?_"

"_I sure hope so._"

"_Shh._" One of them had heard something.

At that the conversation fell silent. Otto motioned over to Veska and Koba to prepare for an attack, but as he looked back over at them, they had humans on top of them with daggers to their throats. And not a second after, Otto joined in their predicament.

"_Calm yourself._" A woman said to Otto.

"_You. You talked to me?_" Otto replied, stunned.

"_Do not confuse me with the humans you massacre and parade around as slaves in your Ape City. We are the enlightened ones._" Responded the woman.

"_Ha!_" Otto scoffed. "_Enlightened. At least you have a sense of humor._"

"_You have to know that we mean you no harm Otto. But we can't let you out of here until our work is complete. Tell me you understand._" The woman said as she tightened the dagger to his throat, driving home the point that she meant business.

"_I understand. Human._" Otto said in return.

"_Good. Samson. Take Otto and his two companions to the holding cell until we get word that Lucius has returned._" The woman said to one of the other humans in the area.

"_Do you have Lucius?" _Otto seized on her words once he heard mention of Lucius._ "Where is he?_"

"_He is going east to meet Mendez. And you are going to the holding cell. Take him away._" The woman said again to Samson.

Samson and two other humans took Otto, Veska, and Koba down to a room at the end of the tunnel which had large metal door perfectly suitable for these humans to use as a holding cell. The three humans were brought to the room and pushed inside, the door locking behind them.

"_If we are not your enemy, then why are we being treated as prisoners?_" Otto couldn't believe he was trying to have a conversation with a human.

"_Because we cannot read the thoughts of the gorillas. And so we cannot take any chances._" The woman replied.

"_Then how did you know my name?_" Otto asked, confused.

"_There is more than one way to find out information Otto. But please do not worry. We mean you no harm and you will be released before long._" Answered the woman.

And with the clanging of the door being locked shut, the woman turned away and left. Leaving the three apes behind in their cell with only the harrowing knowledge that there were, in fact, intelligent humans in their world.


	22. Chapter Twenty-One

**Chapter Twenty-One:**

The train ride had left Lucius in a daze. He had never experienced such a rush. The sheer speed of the train had left him light headed. Even he, as open minded and as scientifically focused as he was, couldn't believe the sophistication of these under-dwellers. Just one day earlier, he had, along with most in Ape City, believed that humans were nothing but dumb brutes. Sure, they were able to talk, but they had never been able to truly communicate. They just made noise, based on their most primal urges: they ate, they mated, and they slept. All of their talking was basically composed of one word statements that revolved around those three activities, and in the vast majority of cases, the apes couldn't even understand them at all. And so here Lucius was, on a train traveling the length of the entire country in less than an hour. Lucius was completely confident that this train must have been developed well before the fallout. There was no way the humans, even these incredible humans, could have done this much work given the total lack of supplies and equipment currently available to them. Nevertheless, the amount of work necessary to maintain such a contraption had to be enormous. Lucius began to wonder. What if these tracks weren't being maintained regularly? What if they couldn't be maintained regularly? Lucius and this train could fly off the tracks at any moment. But Lucius couldn't linger on these thoughts for long, because at the moment he had no choice but to trust these humans who put him here, and hope that in due time he would be allowed to return back to the expedition in one piece.

Lucius had been on the train about an hour, and after bursting out of the ruins of Old Salt Lake City, his train was now screeching to a sudden halt. Outside of his window, Lucius saw a bit of writing on the side of the station walls. It read 'Queensboro Plaza'. He was now beneath the ruins of Old New York City. This station did not have much time. Already there was debris beginning to litter the tracks. Soon parts of the ceiling would come crashing down below, rendering this magnificent train useless. It would only be a matter of years before the train was rendered completely useless.

Once the train had fully stopped, the doors to the train opened immediately. And on the other side, waiting for him, were two humans, a light skinned woman and a dark skinned man. They were dressed just as the humans in the tunnels of Salt Lake City were, with long white robes covering their entire bodies, save for the face. And each of these two humans wore what appeared to be red scarves over their robes. They, obviously, were humans with authority.

"_Hello Lucius. We've been waiting for you. Please come this way._" Said the man.

Lucius didn't say anything in return. He only followed behind the humans. They took him from the train station over to a ladder. The woman was the first to climb the ladder up into the room above.

"_After you Lucius._" Said the man.

Lucius did as he was told and climbed up the ladder and into the room that was just above. Inside this room was a central hub of sorts, almost like a sewer hub, with several different tunnels emanating outwards from it. All of the tunnels looked identical to Lucius, who of course had no clue where to go or where he was. The woman again led the way as she entered one of the tunnels, expecting Lucius to follow closely behind her, with the man bringing up the rear. On the other side of the tunnel was a vast expanse of ruined city. Surrounding them were building torn asunder, buried beneath an avalanche of rubble. Buildings completely unknown to Lucius, monuments of a self destructed civilization, were everywhere. Buildings, such as the New York Stock Exchange, and the Radio City Music Hall littered their path to the human leader. Although the names chiseled into the stone of these building meant nothing to Lucius, he couldn't keep a cold shiver from crawling up his spine.

As a historian he was floored. Here he was at ground zero, the buried ruins of an ancient civilization, right here at his feet. And the civilization, while ancient, was alive. Not to mention that, as a scientist, Lucius' mind had already been blown. He was in the den of an advanced, talking, intelligent human civilization. Odora would surely not believe him, nor would any members of the expedition, much less the Ape Council, when and if he returned home.

After much walking, the three of them finally made it to the doors of a cathedral that was tucked away in what appeared to be the side of a mountain. The large double doors were still in rather pristine shape, and this is where the woman took Lucius. Upon entering through the large wooden doors, Lucius only had a brief amount of time to survey the room before him. There were rows upon rows of little wooden seats lining the room. They were divided by a large path that ran down the center of the room, up to the back of it, where there were stairs upon stairs, all leading up to a series of what looked to be control panels of some sort. Without knowing why, this room scared Lucius. Stairs don't lead to nowhere, and whatever these stairs led up to, Lucius just had a gut feeling that it was dangerous.

But before he could fully examine the room, or even go up those stairs to see what was up there, the woman was quick to have Lucius removed from the room and taken down another long hallway. They made their way through the series of halls and doors, until finally, they passed through another series of doors covered in upside down crosses. The floor on the other side of this room was different, as it was not stone or dirt, but tile, little black and white square tiles. It was in this room where their journey ended, and the leader of the humans revealed himself to Lucius.

"_Hello Lucius. My name is Mendez; the sixteenth in a long line of Mendez's dating back to the time of the Holy Fallout._" Mendez spoke.

"_And who are you, really?_" Asked Lucius.

"_I represent the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout. This is our home, where we live, where we worship. And where we pray to our God._" Mendez answered.

"_How are you able to talk?_" Lucius couldn't quite get over the fact that he was actually talking to humans.

"_I should ask you the same thing. Our God works in mysterious ways. And his handiwork is evident all around us. But the true believers were made beautiful by the glory of the bomb, while the sinners and unbelievers were left to their eternal damnation. And the apes, the apes came to torment the sinners and unbelievers with Hell on Earth._" Mendez explained.

"_What are you doing here?_" Lucius asked.

"_We left San Francisco to our final resting place when war against the apes became inevitable. Many, many years ago. We are a peaceful people who wanted no part of the war with the apes, and after making our feelings known, we were forced out to establish our church elsewhere. The sinners and unbelievers thus deserve their enslavement and their punishment, for to reject the glory of the bomb is to deny God's hope for peace. To interfere with God's hope for peace is a sin, and the wages of sin is death. And so we left, with our God, to this place. We used the roads, the tunnels, the trains, and any other means necessary to reach this city. And when we arrived we set up our church where you now currently stand. And it is here where we shall remain, until the ends of the earth._" Said Mendez in self righteousness.

"_What do you want from me?_" Asked Lucius.

"_Lucius. We live here. We pray here. We worship here. But our fellowship extends far beyond this temple. We have members of the flock spread far and wide across this entire continent, working hard to spread the word of the glory of the bomb. They are everywhere, including your Ape City. Lucius, because our God has blessed us with the ability to hear the thoughts of intelligent apes such as yourself, and because of the several members of the Fellowship that are now embedded in your Ape City, it has come to our attention that Ape City is in trouble._" Mendez explained.

"What kind of trouble? _And why would you care about that?_" Lucius asked, continuing his streak of constant questioning.

"_I told you Lucius, the unbelievers and the sinful must be punished as our God sees fit. And so it was that the apes came to rule the earth, as a sort of divine retribution. They deserve their fate. And now there are factions within your Ape City aiming to mingle with the sinners, to interfere with God's plan. You see Lucius, we are truly not your enemy. We are willing to help you maintain the status quo in your Ape City. The sinners and unbelievers, in and around your city, must continue to be punished. God's will must be preserved._" Said Mendez.

"_And what do you want from me Mendez?_" Asked Lucius.

"_I would ask you to return your expedition back to Ape City. As we speak, there is now a faction of apes being led by a certain Milo, who seeks to, through your ape king, usher in a new era of ape and human equality._" Mendez obviously had eyes and ears inside Ape City.

"_And why should I care? I don't care what Caesar or the ape Council has in mind for the humans in Ape City._" Lucius responded, defiantly.

"_Because our interests are aligned Lucius. We would like to ensure that there be no human entitlement programs in Ape City. No life boats, interfering with God's divine punishment. The humans that you know and are familiar with in and around Ape City are unclean, unworthy. They have turned away from God and deserve his wrath. They deserve no mercy and therefore should get none. That's our interest. Your interest is to stop a tyrant. Milo plans to usurp the Ape throne. He plotted to have Leo murdered and failed in that. But through fear he was able to get your government to grant unlimited power to the ape king. And through your ape king, Milo plans to himself become king, but only after he has used the humans in Ape City to support him as part of a new voting coalition. After his power has been secured, he will cut all loose ends. He will abolish the Ape Council and destroy the old aristocracy. Your lab work, gone. The Academy, gone. He will destroy Ape City, brick by brick, and remake it in his own image, built on the backs of the poor and the humans. Your world as you know it will be gone Lucius. Forever. The Ape City that your first Caesar built will be gone. Apes living under a tyranny. That is your interest, Milo. Help us, and help yourself. You want to retain Ape freedom. We want to contyinue to be the instruments of God's divine will." _Mendez finally revealed is hand. He knew who had tried to kill the High Councilor, and he knew what Milo planned to do next.

"_How do you know all this?_" Lucius asked.

"_We have been blessed Lucius, with power and influence. That is all that you need to know right now._" Mendez answered.

"_I don't care about the humans." Said Lucius._

"_Care for your city then Lucius. Make no mistake; humans will be slaves either way. Slaves to individual ape masters or, if Milo has his way, slaves to the paltry handouts doled out by the ape government. This only prolongs their ultimate judgment. And make no mistake; it won't be just humans dependent on the ape government, but all apes as well. Apes and humans made slaves, equally._" Responded Mendez.

"_Even with my expedition heading back to Ape City. We only have nine hundred soldiers. If Milo truly is planning a coup, then he will surely have the Council Guard at his back, making it all but impossible for us to stop him._" Milo said. He couldn't help but feel like the impossible was always being asked of him.

"_That is why we are going to help you Lucius. We do not have much, but with the blessing of almighty God, victory will be yours Lucius. I am prepared to send with you what I can, twenty of our flock. Do not underestimate their worth Lucius, they can read the thoughts of the intelligent. Man and ape alike. They will surely be invaluable to you in some way I'm sure._" Mendez said, trying his best to comfort Lucius.

"_And, and what would warrant such charity?_" Lucius asked sarcastically.

"_I've already told you Lucius. Our interests are aligned. But perhaps one day our two peoples will again need one another. And on that day, if it comes, hopefully one may come the aid of the other._" Mendez replied.

"_Okay. I will agree to this task. Thank you Mendez, for the information. And for the help. Thank you._" Lucius said, not sure if he would ever see this human again.

"_Thank you Lucius. May the divine providence of the almighty bomb guide you and protect you. Farewell._" Said Mendez.

And then Mendez turned away and vanished into what can only be assumed to have been his own private quarters.

"_We must go now Lucius._" The white skinned woman urged Lucius.

They left the way they had come. Through the cathedral, out past the ruins, and back down the ladder and to the bullet train. But this time they were accompanied by an additional twenty humans, but humans not wearing colored robes, on the way back to the train.

"_These members of our congregation will be invaluable to you Lucius as you serve God's will. Defying God's will is a sin, and so those in Ape City who seek to interfere with the divine retribution must be stopped. The humans in Ape City must either come to see the light of the holy fallout, or must be allowed to die. But to interfere…_" the woman stopped in the middle of her sentence. "_Good luck Lucius._"

The doors to the train opened and Lucius and the twenty humans dispatched by Mendez entered it along with him. Lucius turned back around to face the doors before they closed. He said his last words to this unnamed woman.

"_No. Thank you._"

The doors closed, the train hissed, and in a flash, they were gone.


End file.
